If your home you bought 10 years ago doubled or tripped, why can't you move? You pocket the difference, put that down on the next over priced house, bringing your mortgage principal back down to the small mortgage you were paying 10 years ago on a cheap house. Ya, the rate is higher... But if you just made $600k on your $300k house, that you've paid down to $200k hopefully atleast... And you move and buy a house for the same $900k you just sold yours for, you only have a mortgage on $200k. Yes at a higher rate. And yes with higher property taxes. But hey, that's life. Don't move if it's not worth it. But it's not as impossible as you make it seem.