Yeah, I don't know how someone can look at housing prices say, 1990-2020 and say there wasn't inflation after the housing crisis. House prices dropped, but not as much as they "should" have to eradicate the evident bubble of '00-'08, despite the very public beating housing & banking took. And 2-3 years on they were shooting up again!

Is it really inflation if the cost of a house doubles but the cost of servicing a mortgage halves because interest rates are so low?

This reads to me like "is it really inflation if money just got cheaper?" Which... I think the answer is "yes, that's exactly what it is"?

No, that's just a single overlevered market with, well, the banks laughing all the way to the bank? Because apparently they can get away with it.

Individual markets have crazy price increases all the time. It's happened to gold, oil, wheat, and virtually every tradeable thing ever, including housing. That it happens in one place is no reason to cry inflation.

Evil landlord owns an apartment, he jacks up prices to the maximum possible that people can afford. Fed happens and the value of the apartment goes up. The landlord jacks up prices to maintain a stable price to rent ratio. Yet nobody can afford to rent the apartment.

It's not really inflation, it's something different. The cost of financing has gone down. If financing dries up, real estate prices will go up again.