It’s fascinating how people proclaim that they have learned their lesson: “Buying a home is about paying your own real money, just to get shelter for yourself and your family. It’s not about speculating with OPM.”

Yet, despite all these proclamations, almost everyone cheers higher home prices, giving the lie to their supposed new attitudes. Obviously, if buying a home is mostly about paying for shelter, then lower prices are better than higher prices. We don’t cheer when food prices or car prices increase.

We haven’t yet learned our lesson. It will take many years, and we’ll spend many trillions on a variety of direct and indirect house price supports before then.