Gen Z and even Gen Alpha teens are already planning for a future in which buying a home is impossible. Those that are buying are aiming for cost efficiency and they are buying alone (prioritizing savings and home ownership over marriage).

This is a subject for another article but it represents a reversal in traditional consumer behavior; a sea change that needs to be examined because it reflects greater underlying social and economic struggles.

This struggle is not only happening in the US; all across the western world from Australia to Canada to most of Europe people are facing the worst home price inflation in decades and they're scrambling to find ways to adapt.

However, just as in physics, there are rules of motion that still apply to markets regardless of government or central bank intervention. What goes up must inevitably come down. There's been an interesting development in the past year, specifically on the sellers side of the housing equation, and it signals big changes in the near term.

Because of the pandemic, the relocation panic, Covid stimulus and corporate buyers, prices were juiced across the board and the average cost of a home skyrocketed by 50% or more from 2019 to 2024.