Even people paying no attention to markets notice how dramatically rent and property values have risen.  In my area, property values have quintupled in the last ten years. What bought a house on acreage ten years ago now wouldn't get you a small house on a tiny lot in a terrifying neighborhood.

It's not that tons of people are moving to my state.  Nearly as many are leaving.  It's also not that there is a building shortage.  Enormous housing subdivisions are going up, but they're full of $500,000 homes in an area where the median income is $80,000.  It just doesn't make sense.

Investment firms are snapping up homes.
That is, unless you're looking at homes not as a place for real people to inhabit but as investment opportunities.  Sellers are usually happy to sell to investment firms because they can pay so much more than average individual buyers, but that's because investment firms have access to much lower interest rates.

While investors dramatically slowed down their purchases of single-family homes in 2023 due to the mortgage rate increases, they still purchased about 18% of homes sold because individuals have slowed down their purchases of homes, too.

Everyone knows that the luxury home bubble is going to burst at some point, and investment firms are backing off accordingly.  This year they have shifted their focus to low-income homes, buying up an increasingly large share of starter homes around the country.  Investment firms see these as safer bets financially, but this concentration of cheaper homes into the hands of investment firms makes it harder than ever for lower earners to buy their own homes.