Parent is correct generally speaking. It's not that the prices are sentient, it's that sellers (of anything) are always charging as much as they can for their h

Parent is correct generally speaking. It's not that the prices are sentient, it's that sellers (of anything) are always charging as much as they can for their house and not a dollar less. If everybody suddenly has an extra 10K, the seller will notice that through an increase in bids for their house at price X, and a single surviving bid at price X+10K (the person who would have bought the house at X before everybody got the 10K). The option for the person who has X+10K would be to lose the bid, but they know they would face stiff competition at X for their next purchase attempt, thus they will eventually accept the higher price given that they have the money. Of course, this is an oversimplification. But looking at the market as a whole, the more money people have to spend, the more you can charge for the house.