[NathanKP]

The graph showing the difference between home price index, and consumer price index does not consider that many of the items in the consumer price index are heavily subsidized by the government.

For example notice the item categories in the index: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

And then compare them to the companies in the subsidy tracker: https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent-totals

So another story we could be seeing here is that heavy government subsidies are barely managing to keep consumer prices down in many categories, except for housing.

My general opinion: we don't have just a housing emergency. We have a general emergency across many, many categories. If the government stops all these subsidies we'd see prices for everything else skyrocket across the board to match housing prices. Then wages would be forced to rise too, and you'd see the true underlying crisis: hyperinflation. Houses are worth so much because they are one of the best hedges against hyperinflation. If the US dollar gets inflated my house suddenly gets very easy to pay off and its now my primary form of wealth. So no wonder housing is so expensive.