Depends where of course. All over the south and the rust belt midwest home prices have been more or less stabilized over the past 35 years or so. Even if they "went up 30% in covid" that could mean they only went up another 30k or so realistically. The land of 70k jobs and 150k 3-4br houses where all is well.

Then you go to the hot markets and salaries for comparable positions are only like 20% more but the exact same home (actually on west coast, subtract the full basement and lot large enough for a detached two car garage) is 10x in price or more.

2023

The American dream is dead and none of our politicians on the right and not enough on the left are talking about it. The American dream isn't to get filthy rich by providing an innovative product or solution and gobbling up an astronomical percentage of monetary resources. The dream is to come out of college with easy to repay debt or work a trade with a good union, be able to buy a home after a few years of saving, start a family, not go deep into credit card debt just to survive, and retire on time. None of that is feasible anymore and will not without major changes. Trump may think he's bringing that back with his tariffs but it's not a one fix problem. Many things need to be addressed that we are not willing to talk about.

Short answer: banks infinite money creation glitch (credit creation) inflated the prices of everything, but especially houses because it’s seen as a safe investment. Solving the housing market is pretty simply: make it a depreciated asset, never an investment one, or better, end banks credit creation aka money creation out of thin air. Any other solution will never fix the issue.