That could be construed as an artificial attempt to get at your gain.

I believe that an artificial appreciation took place initially, but fortunately this was a good thing as consumers took the time to rebuild their credit, they could come back and buy the same homes (only now more renovated) in three to five years.

       @Nicole Sorensen Hull I suspect the actual intent was to hide the taxable gain, by artificially increasing the sales price via an "insider loan" or cash payment which is funneled back to the seller.  

And are you a deferred maintenance type landlord ie deferring mess and spend my artificial cash flow now? 

But I believe that in many markets that was an artificial peak and it may take a really long time (if ever) to get to that peak.

I was walking the other day in our neighborhood and saw a lawn done with ARTIFICIAL GRASS.

There is also some concern (i don't have details) about the level of condo fees and the suspicion that they are being set artificially low on new build.

The government had a lot of debt from the war and artificially kept interest rates low and let inflation take care of the debt.

Looks like they are competing with open-door / Zillow and other Ibuyers to artificially inflate the prices. 

It's the area where emotional intelligence excels over artificial intelligence.The cumulative result of these consumer preferences and algorithmic pricing is that the consumers willing to sell to Zillow were those with the least desirable homes.