You brought up a nice point: Inflation must catch up housing pri

I feel that housing market has a kind of a self regulating valve. China market may not have this valve. But US market definitely has this valve. When the valve detected that its internal pressure is too high or it detected that it has gone way beyond inflation ratio, it automatically stopped itself for the inflation to catch up. This slump appears to have been triggered by itself, rather than external forces. Inflation can catch in many ways: Rent increase (under way), salary increase (soon to be underway), general commodity price increase (underway). After about 8-10 years, people's income and every price around them will rise to a level that make housing price look reasonable again, then there goes a new housing boom...