[roenxi]

There is an ugly reverse side of this that people don't like to notice (in a "difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends on him not understanding" way).

If this appreciation is a good deal, it suggests there is a wealth transfer happening between new residents in an area to old ones. In a vacuum house prices shouldn't reliably appreciate compared to the interest rate. For all the complaints about the very wealthy, this wealth transfer by real estate is likely one of the major effects that stops people improving their own living standards. Once people are forced to be long term renters they aren't going to be as wealthy as they otherwise could have been, due to the theoretical concept economists call rent seeking (distinct from the usual meaning of rent).