A large part of the "foreign ownership" plaguing west-coast cities like Vancouver and Seattle is capital flight from China. In this case, real estate has the valuable property of being harder for a foreign government (who happens to be the government to which the homeowner is subject) to confiscate+liquidate than other assets, so said government will prioritize softer targets. Real estate as an investment class here is acting like a club on a car steering wheel—de-prioritizing theft, rather than inhibiting it.

Sometimes there's just no good alternative. And real estate has less strict AML/KYC laws than other asset classes so we have some shady foreign money coming in.

> Sometimes there's just no good alternative.

You can always just stick your money in an ETF.

Which may not be a good alternative.

Well, you can also put your money into short-selling strategies, if you think stuff is overvalued.

(Of course, taxes and regulations complicated this discussion.)

P/E ratios of much of the S&P500 would indicate prices/values far over the fundamental value, yet investors continue to flock to large-cap equities in droves.

It's a bubble but it's hard to fight it. US runs a trade deficit vs other nations meaning the trade surplus nations have too many dollars which they send into the financial markets of the US. They most likely buy international companies that have a presence in their own country.

Not the same thing though. The ceiling here is about affordability, not the value of the asset. A house is a need for the individual buyer, not an investment.

That isn't true, even if it's not the majority, a significant number homes are purchased as rental/investment properties.