Reading through this now. There's a lot here and I have to admit, much of it is out of my wheelhouse. But I can get the gist of what's being said. I appreciate the link.

Makes me definitely consider putting this housing search on the back burner. In my area we've seen massive price increases in just the last 3 years. I was on a tour of a home yesterday and the agent told me that the previous home tour was with a bay area investor who had cash on hand for the home.

Hard to compete with that. And maybe it's just the wrong time to be competing at all.

I am not an investment advisor But you can approximate the returns you would get from real estate appreciation by carefully investing what you would spend on a home (down payment, taxes, mortgage etc.). Though if theres a major downturn that could also be risky.

Buy gold?