> Why is housing magically different from from the innumerable other things we regularly buy even though their value depreciates after purchase?

It might be good or bad, but clearly it is very different simply due to price.

If a relatively cheap trinket depreciates to zero, hardly anyone cares.

Cars are generally the second most expensive thing people will ever buy and they depreciate, which does bother most people from a financial perspective. But they last a long time and while they are very expensive they're not life-changing expensive.

A house though, is going to cost decades of your labor, so having that depreciate too fast is going to scare a lot of people.