The affordability (boom)/financial (bust) cycle highlighted in the repost below is a relatively new phenomenon. It really started in the late 1990s (chart), when everyone began to "degen" (degenerate gambler) on home prices. The 50 years before that (red box), and I would argue the century before that, housing kept pace with inflation. In other words, a home was a nice place to live that held its value relative to inflation. Now, housing has become "boomer bitcoin," as the average age of a homebuyer is 61 (40 for a first-time homebuyer), shutting out the younger BTC hodlers, and providing boomers with their primary source of wealth and retirement income.(Jim Bianco)