The bottom line is that what I'm paying for this house is unchanged.

Foundation issue could be a crack in a basement wall that's been there unchanged for 40 years and doesn't leak water, plumbing damage could be only a few hundred dollar fix, etc.

The so called cliff has been unchanged for the past 5 years since the policy was issued and please reinspect, I added.

The rent was unchanged for past several years. 

The average price was flat at $209,075 and the median price rose 3.9 percent to $172,500;- Single-family home rentals increased 7.6 percent with the average rent unchanged at $1,914;Volume of townhome/condominium leases climbed 6.3 percent with the average rent also unchanged at $1,645.

Is it a moving target defined by the mood of a segment of society at a given time, or is there something more fundamental and unchanging that we should measure it by?   

But lots of other expenses stay unchanged (insurance, taxes, overall maintenance).

With the reform that was passed. the 2 out of 5 rule was left unchanged in the end. 

http://www.har.com/content/newsroom/Houston Real Estate Highlights in January: Single-family home sales rose 8.9 percent year-over-year, with 4,469 units sold;Days on Market (DOM) for single-family homes increased slightly from 65 days in January 2017 to 67 days this January;Total property sales increased 8.7 percent with 5,468 units sold;Total dollar volume climbed 6.3 percent to $1.4 billion;The single-family home median price rose 3.8 percent to $218,000, which represents a January high;The single-family home average price declined 2.1 percent to $270,303;Single-family homes months of inventory was unchanged year-over-year at a 3.3-months supply;Townhome/condominium sales fell 1.3 percent, with the average price up 2.1 percent to $192,918 and the median price up 13.6 percent to $159,000;Leases of single-family homes rose 1.9 percent with the average rent up 1.4 percent to $1,748;Volume of townhome/condominium leases fell 5.3 percent with average rent up 1.3 percent to $1,516

Fifty areas, 31 percent, had double-digit gains; one was unchanged and 20 had price declines.