I hate the use of the term "housing" when what we mean is "land". Building materials haven't gotten obscenely more expensive. Building labor hasn't gotten obscenely more expensive. Land has gotten obscenely more expensive.

We are also reaching a point where consumers drive the price of residential land less and less. How much difference does the mortgage rate make when the market is increasingly driven by commercial buyers, who don't use mortgages?

There is no karma system in economics. There is no such thing as having to do a "bust" as if it is some backlog of tasks you have forgotten to work on or a divine punishment from God you must endure. A bust just means the interest rate is above the return on investment in the actual economy. That's it.

"Taming the business cycle" is an empty phrase.

There is no karma, but there is a long-term tendency for real economic growth in about the 3-4% range. It's a combination of innovation and increased population. The latter is pretty consistent; the former is not, and yet seems remarkably steady.

You can increase the rates a small amount by borrowing money, but not indefinitely. Eventually, that borrowed money causes inflation, because it increases the money supply. And eventually, people get antsy, and try to cement their gains.

That's not karma, it's psychology. It's how people have behaved, and it's as predictable as anything ever gets in economics. It doesn't take a deity to invoke a bust; it just takes humans.