Perhaps it is the result of choosing to take a historical price chart and say, "look the value goes up" rather than any sort of analysis. It is amazing to me so many people take out huge loans (mortgage, car, college) without doing the math on the final price after compounding.

If the economy is growing faster than your interest rate and the population is increasing as well and its really hard to build new housing, then by all means buy your house and maybe even take out a loan to do so! If not, maybe still buy, but there is little urgency.