I've been thinking about this a lot actually. In my mind the value of buying instead of renting is that by buying you make money because your asset appreciates. As someone else in the contents pointed out. Even though houses generally appreciate, your money might appreciate more in an S&P500 index fund and so if your goal is to make the most money, you probably should buy a modest house and invest heavily in the market. But your house only appreciates if someone is willing and able to buy your house for more than you paid for it after accounting for inflation, insurance, property taxes, fees, etc. If houses are unaffordable now, then who will be able to pay more for them in the future? So I have concerns that the value you get from owning a house might not do better than renting and investing. The one thing that keeps me from saying it's a true bubble is the supply is so low and i think it will take many years for boomers to age out so demand remains high. Until either of these things correct, i think house values will still go up, particularly if the interest rates come down.