Unfortunately this is typical of academia , live in a self aggrandizing environment where it is intellectual ability that is the determinant. The result is , much like politics , where a leader is heralded on ability to debate. That then presupposes , which economics just does not allow for , that all things remain equal and work rationally.
With real estate that just is not the case. A marketplace it is and many factors contribute to people buying based on the need for shelter, pleasant surroundings , historical preferences inter alia. To try and submerge such a complex subject to standard parameters has seen economists not ever predict a boom. But downturns they predict ad nauseum and if they get 1 in 100 right they , and their minnions, trumpet out their success but not a whisper about their recurrent failures.
