>Finally, the fact that rents are sky-high as well, suggests that housing is expensive in general, not only home ownership.

There's a "cartel as a service" / rent fixing software system for that...

https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r...

I believe the correct response here is "That's wonderful! It lets everyone get in on the benefit of being a slumlord without the hassle of shaking down your tenants. Now you can just buy shares in this instead!"

Very well said. The asset class is currently in the middle of strip-mining the middle class for everything they have.