system
A chat on subreddit /r/me_irl
human
There's a lot going on. People stay in houses longer. Corporations buy up houses en masse and then would rather have them sit empty than drop the price to sell. Construction doesn't print money and shit gold bricks like it did 20 years ago so a lot of people got out of it despite it being very profitable. Wages are down and rent is up so getting down payments is a nightmare.

It's just a perfect storm of greed. I don't know who to blame but I'm going to go with the guys who cried that they couldn't afford their 20 mortgages with the rent freeze, i think we could probably put those guys on a one way trip to Siberia in flip flops and a Hawaiian shirt.
gpt
&gt; People stay in houses longer.

I mean, who wouldn't with prices like this. And then they "solved" the problem by jacking up mortgage interest rates in an effort to beat the market into submission. The only thing that does is benefit banks and punish home owners. 

I've done the math on this based on estimates for my current home's value. If I wanted to move to a *marginally* larger house, I would have to double my monthly mortgage. Literally go from $1,900/month to around $3,800-$4,000 / month for an extra 800 square feet (basically some larger bedrooms and bathrooms). Even if I wanted to trade like-for-like houses, the higher mortgage interest rate would cost me an extra $500/month for *literally no gain*, PLUS the closing costs.

If someone is already in a house, it would be insanity to leave it.