Good point. One way to look at this is that a house on a piece of property can be treated as a fungible product for two different markets: it can be an investm

Good point. One way to look at this is that a house on a piece of property can be treated as a fungible product for two different markets: it can be an investment vehicle for investors, or a place to live for homeowners. As its value to one of those markets increases, buyers on that side suck supply out of the other market. You can get a sense of how much this is happening by looking at the vacancy rate: higher vacancy rates implies that houses are worth relatively more to investors than homeowners.