They remained more affordable, for a time. And then housing prices went right back through the roof.

I bought a foreclosed house in 2012 for ~280k. It had been purchased by the previous owner for about 480k.

I put about 150k into it, 100k the first year to make it a liveable property, and 50k or so over the next ten years.

I sold it last year for about 850k…

I then bought a new house that cost about 450k when it was built 4 years ago, for about 680k, in a less expensive market.

It’s this plus uptime. Both come down to usability. Nobody wants to use a product that is confusing or unreliable.