I just want to pick on this point a little - > Speculation is not what is damaging the real estate market. It's local zoning boards preventing construction. It

I just want to pick on this point a little - > Speculation is not what is damaging the real estate market. It's local zoning boards preventing construction. It's simple supply and demand -- demand for housing far outstrips supply. At the most technical/fundamental level you are correct. However, it glosses over how a lot of that demand is sort of artificial and certainly temporary. A lot of the increase in demand is wealthy people buying up housing to feed AirBNB/VRBO/etc. As areas move to increase supply to match demand we will end up with multiple instances of, essentially, Detroit or Italy. As family numbers dwindle, reproduction rates drop, and Boomers die off (they're a very large generation), the demand for housing is going to start falling pretty substantially in the next decade. We'll be left with unwanted housing which leads to vacant properties which leads to crime which leads to devalued property. And we'll be right back to selling homes for $1 or demolishing them just to protect the occupied ones next door.