I think the seemingly high prices are simply where inflation is showing up first. Or at least partially. Pent up demand and Covid throwing a wrench in everyone's lifestyles also likely messed with supply/demand.

low rates

Same in Fort Collins. Last house we lost on was listed for 425, sold for 500 with waived inspection and appraisal gap.

It's almost that bad in suburban New Jersey. Not so bad as waiving inspections necessarily but covering appraisal gaps is pretty much required because of how hot it is. Same for 10-20% over ask on the offers.

When we were buying about 8 years ago in the Bay area, we probably wrote 50 offers, all above asking, and finally got one home. It was a total nightmare as a buyer. One home got 40 written offers, according to the listing agent, and sold for 2X its asking price--all cash, no contingencies.

That's insane they got 2X. I'm sure if some of their neighbors knew that, they'd consider selling themselves.

Sell, then what? Another mortgage if they want to live in the area, or uprooting entirely. That 2 million dollar bay area house might have been a 20k house among 10-40k houses in the 1970s; today it's a 2 million dollar house among 2-10 million dollar houses, so at best you'd be doing a lateral move or downsizing into something grossly overpriced, or line up to become one of the 40 people trying to throw a cash offer somewhere in the stratosphere above list on some midwestern home.

It's a zero sum game unless you upzone and build more housing to meet the demand, because the population of this country has only gone up.

If you're willing to move to a new area, you can always find certain areas where the housing market is different in regards to supply/demand. You could also plan to rent for a few years to see if the purchase market cools off in the meantime. Rents don't increase proportionally to sudden housing market volatility.