A bit late to this conversation, but a few observations.
There ain't many benefits to becoming chronologically gifted, but having a longer perspective is one of them. Interest rates aren't high. They are back to normal. The last 15 years have seen the most dramatic interference, possibly ever and certainly since the Great Depression and WWII. Historically, over hundreds of year period, long-term sovereign debt is about 5%. So when we see 10-year at just 5%, that's about right, and 7.5-8% mortgages also seem appropriate.
Earlier, there were some good charts on housing prices and affordability. They showed housing affordability to be at the low end of historical ranges. However, there are real limitations to making comparisons across the decades. While Case-Shiller is a very good tool. The 1000' average 2 bedroom 1.5 bath house of 1960 is not really comparable to nearly 2500 3-4 bedroom 3 bath house of today.
It is more than just the size, the overall utility of the house is a lot more valuable than it was 50 years ago and even at the beginning of the century. I purchase, either as rental or flip property a lot of 1940-1970 era houses in the KC areas. Generally, by the time we finish renovating, they are in 200-300K ranges and not only better than the junk condition we bought them in but better than there were new. They have, a washer, dryers, dishwashers, microwaves, and A/C. Much better furnaces and insulation, granite or quartz surface, and often LVP flooring, nice stuff that requires less maintenance. Houses, now days have enough room to have an office, or room to start a business or hobby, as well as room for the small number of kids. As a teenager, I went to lot of movies. Beside the obvious, dates, and that was the only way to see a movie back in the not-so-good-old days, during summer you went to the movies cause your house didn't have A/C and theaters did. Today's house offer and wide variety of movies for very cheap price, with big screen, air condition, and even fancy popcorn, and/or expresso machines. Similarly, one of the things I hated about living in an apartment was having to go to the complex's laundry room or even worse, a laundromat. Nowadays almost all houses come with washers and dryer so you can bypass these. So given the improved functionality of a house it is no surprise that real prices have gotten up
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Finally, I'm glad people mentioned Europe, but first, let's take a look at Canadian houses. Canada's house average 1950 square feet, mortgages are adjustable after 5 years, mortgage interest is not deductible, pretty much an inferior investment to US houses in every way. Yet Vancouver's median price is 50% higher than Seattles'. Toronto's prices are 15 times higher, than Detroit proper and 3x more expensive than Gross Pointe, MI where all the auto executives live.
It's not like Canada is a fluke is here is a list of housing affordability by country. The US ranks 101st out 106th of the least affordable housing, only place in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia and Qatar are more affordable. So for those who think have a housing crisis, what is the adjective you used to describe the 100 other countries with more expensive housing?
https://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/rankings_by_country.jsp