Don't forget the role interest rates play. Back in the 1970s there were newspaper articles about it being cheaper to own a home than to rent. Then RayGun and Lyin Brian let interest rates run up to 20% or more and many people found themselves with negative equity in a home they could not sell.

My wife and I bought 1 of 3 homes that sold in the Greater Victoria BC Capital Region in 1982/March, k$113, with a k$60 fully assumable 1st mortgage at the bargain rate of 16% and a k$10 BC Home program 2nd mortgage. The government clerk who processed the payout of the 2nd mortgage freaked out when my wife went in to do that 10 months later. Paid off the 1st mortgage in 5 years and 9 months.

Working in IT was sort of like living in an alternate reality of full time gold collar employment during the RayGun and Dubbya's Dad depressions. When times are tough productivity and process improvement are more important than ever.

You have more choice, lower prices, when the housing market stalls.