The share of first-time homebuyers speaks to the issue a bit more clearly than the factors you've been looking at above. https://www.statista.com/statistics/20

The share of first-time homebuyers speaks to the issue a bit more clearly than the factors you've been looking at above. https://www.statista.com/statistics/208072/share-of-first-time-home-buyers-usa/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/208072/share-of-first-ti... People who are already positioned in real estate aren't as affected by rapid price increases when they're looking to sell one home and buy another because the home they're selling was along for the ride. They're impacted, but much less so than first-time homebuyers who are either short on assets altogether (most working individuals/families trying to take the next step on the default treadmill) or have assets that haven't been performing as well as real estate. Those first-time buyers need to directly relate the purchase price of the home to their savings and income and it gotten very hard for them to that. The worse it gets and the longer it sustains, the more it looks like a failure to attend an entire generation of workers and their families.