ALSO - maybe the landlord pays all utilities, which puts the rents artificially higher than market (are the rents at typical market?)

My personal opinion is that rates will remain artificially low for another couple of years.

And that's not an ideological statement, it's just a fact.Enormous advances in computer understanding and artificial intelligence are raising the specter of job loss that will easily outpace the 8.8 million jobs lost during the Great Recession.

Vincent, I don't believe we are seeing the "artificial demand" that (I believe) caused the housing bubble.

The majority of the problem in the housing bubble stemmed from an artificially high supply of buyers.

As soon as the government no longer artificially holds the rates down, and they increase even minimally, the values will drop.Rob K – nice post, but you left out the biggest problem which is the entitlement funds that will drive us over the cliff.I always remember that some of the best deals I ever did was when I DIDN'T buy......Rich

As we know, everything is artificially propped up before an Election.

So, artificially holding it up will just mean it has further to fall when it finally does.Actually, I think he economy is headed in a bad direction, and it would be better to let it get there sooner rather than later.

There are ways of covering up a poor market with artificially low interest rates, injection of capital which causes inflation, and other little tricks.

The combination of overly aggressive mortgage brokers, appraisers who are in the realtor's/mortgage broker's pockets, and greedy lenders led to a situation where housing demand was grossly artificially inflated.