People tend to judge affordability based on repayments, not prices, so lower interest rates mean you can service a much larger debt for the same monthly repayment.

Where housing is scarce prices are determined by availability of credit more than anything else, so "you can" rapidly becomes "you'll have to, otherwise you'll be outbid by somebody who will".

Over the long term it's a shitty, negative-sum game for everyone except the banks.