> Everything has gone up massively and for seemingly no reason.
The reason is quite obvious. Just like bond values and yields are inversely correlated, mortgage rates and home values are inversely correlated. Here is a chart of the 30Y mortgage rate, it should explain everything.
Yes but it's a little more complicated than just rates. It's a multitude of factors including perceived worth, available cash, financing rules, supply, new construction costs, etc.
People need to be willing to sign their lives away to pay off houses, otherwise rates would also be strongly tied to the price of everything from cars to toothpaste (they are very loosely, but those things don't cost 3x what they did in 2014).
