Weirdly, I own a house and think I'd be better off if prices fell-- fell a lot. I bought a few years ago and would be happy if prices uniformly dropped to those levels.
Why? I want a 50% bigger/nicer house in the same area. But bigger/nicer houses have increased in price proportionally to mine. So the gap in absolute dollars between what I have and what I want has expanded quite a bit. My income has increased, but not really enough to cover the gap.
Strong increasing prices really only help homeowners to the effect that they're eventually willing to downsize or move to a lower-cost area.
If prices rise strongly and proportionately I suspect it just causes stagnation. I can't really upgrade without a windfall, thus my house stays off the market. So other folks can't upgrade to my house.
Why? I want a 50% bigger/nicer house in the same area. But bigger/nicer houses have increased in price proportionally to mine. So the gap in absolute dollars between what I have and what I want has expanded quite a bit. My income has increased, but not really enough to cover the gap.
Strong increasing prices really only help homeowners to the effect that they're eventually willing to downsize or move to a lower-cost area.
If prices rise strongly and proportionately I suspect it just causes stagnation. I can't really upgrade without a windfall, thus my house stays off the market. So other folks can't upgrade to my house.