How does it drive prices down when speculators are buying up residential houses and outbidding regular people?

Because many more people can afford rent as opposed to taking on a mortage.

> The vast majority of Americans are driving cars they can't afford.

How do you define whether someone can “afford” a car? Surely by definition the people can afford the cars, otherwise they would be repossessed?

If you mean they cannot afford to buy the cars outright, why is that an issue?

Just because you don't lose your house doesn't necessarily mean you can afford to keep it.

At a certain % of income, owning an asset doesn't make much sense due to how it affects your financial security.

How does reducing the already limited supply even further, drive prices down? I always thought that when demand is high and supply is low, prices go up?

There are way more renters than there are home buyers.