Will Homes Be Increasing in Value Forever? Don't We Reach a Point Where Almost Nobody Can Afford to Buy?

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Adrian Volenik

Tue, September 15, 2026 at 4:15 PM GMT+3 7 min read

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After watching home prices explode during the pandemic, one recent buyer has a question that probably sounds familiar to anyone who has looked at real estate lately: How can this possibly continue?

The buyer, who recently purchased a home in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, asked Reddit's r/RealEstate community where the ceiling is if home prices keep appreciating while incomes struggle to keep pace.

"At some point don't we just reach a point where no one can afford a home?" they asked. They were even worried that continued appreciation could eventually make their own home difficult to sell because there wouldn't be enough buyers who could afford it.

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He thought real estate was out of reach on a $60K salary — then he discovered Arrived lets eligible investors start with as little as $100.

Homes Don't Actually Go Up Every Year

The simplest answer is that they don't.

"There isn't a stock that goes up every year, but in general over time the entire market will rise," one commenter said, comparing housing with the stock market.

Real estate can behave similarly. Home prices may rise over decades while individual homes, neighborhoods and entire cities stagnate or lose value. One homeowner said their property actually declined in value from 2010 until the pandemic.

Inflation also explains some of the seemingly endless increase. If the dollar buys less over time, the dollar price attached to a house can rise even if its underlying value hasn't increased nearly as dramatically.

Supply matters, too. You can build more houses, but you can't easily create more land close to established jobs, schools, restaurants and other amenities. When more people want to live in a desirable area than there are homes available, prices can continue rising.

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That scarcity is also one reason investors continue looking for ways to get exposure to real estate. For accredited investors who want real estate exposure without buying and managing a property themselves, EquityMultiple handles property management and offers investments starting at $5,000.

Its Alpine Note Basecamp, an exclusive offer for first-time investors, currently advertises an 8% APY over a six-month term. Creating an EquityMultiple account is straightforward: Connect a bank account, select an offering and leave the property management to the platform.

Affordability Eventually Pushes Back

There isn't one magic price at which homes suddenly become too expensive. Instead, prices continually interact with wages, mortgage rates, available credit and the number of people willing and able to buy.

As one commenter put it, "There is a ceiling, but it isn't a specific dollar amount."

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When buyers can't qualify for mortgages or aren't willing to pay asking prices, appreciation can slow, prices can flatten or fall, and homes can simply take longer to sell.

And 2% annual appreciation isn't quite as extreme as it might initially sound. A $400,000 house appreciating by 2% annually would be worth about $488,000 after 10 years. If wages and overall prices are also higher a decade from now, that doesn't automatically make the home unaffordable.

The pandemic years are also a poor baseline for what homeowners should expect indefinitely. "What happened during the pandemic was not normal appreciation," one commenter said, adding that they wouldn't use those years as a model for what happens next.

Perhaps the best response to the buyer's fear was also the simplest: "You may not always like the price buyers are willing to pay, but there will be a price at which buyers show up."

In other words, houses can't become infinitely expensive while everything else stands still. If buyers stop paying higher prices, the market eventually has to adjust.

Image: Shutterstock

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Building Wealth Across More Than Just the Market

Building a resilient portfolio means thinking beyond a single asset or market trend. Economic cycles shift, sectors rise and fall, and no one investment performs well in every environment. That's why many investors look to diversify with platforms that provide access to real estate, fixed-income opportunities, precious metals, and even self-directed retirement accounts. By spreading exposure across multiple asset classes, it becomes easier to manage risk, capture steady returns, and create long-term wealth that isn't tied to the fortunes of just one company or industry.

Arrived

Backed by Jeff Bezos, Arrived Homes makes real estate investing accessible with a low barrier to entry. Investors canbuy fractional shares of single-family rentals and vacation homes starting with as little as $100. This allows everyday investors to diversify into real estate, collect rental income, and build long-term wealth without needing to manage properties directly.

Skybound Entertainment

Entertainment franchises can become valuable long-term assets when they successfully expand across multiple platforms.Skybound Entertainment, the company behind The Walking Dead and Invincible, develops original intellectual property that spans comics, television, film, video games, merchandise, and licensing. With more than 250 IPs in its portfolio and a strategy focused on retaining franchise rights while scaling successful stories across media, Skybound offers investors exposure to the growing entertainment and creator economy through a private company rather than traditional public market investments.

Green Coffee Company

Coffee is a daily staple for millions of consumers, but investors rarely get direct exposure to the brands and supply chains behind it. Green Coffee Company offers a way to participate in the growth of the coffee market through its exclusive U.S. and Canadian distribution rights for Colombian brand Juan Valdez. With the brand expanding across major retailers including Target, Walgreens and Kroger, and GCC reporting 26X revenue growth over four years, the company is positioning itself to bring a well-known Colombian coffee brand to more consumers across North America.

American PowerGen

As artificial intelligence drives a surge in electricity demand, reliable power generation is becoming a critical part of the technology ecosystem.American PowerGen is developing natural gas-fired power plants in Texas, a fast-growing market fueled by AI data centers, manufacturing expansion, and population growth. By advancing projects through permitting, fuel supply, and grid interconnection, the company is positioning itself to help meet rising energy needs while offering investors exposure to the infrastructure supporting the next wave of AI and industrial growth.

Qnetic

As electricity demand rises alongside AI, data centers, and renewable energy, long-duration energy storage is becoming increasingly important.Qnetic is developing a kinetic energy storage system designed to provide long-lasting, chemical-free electricity storage , offering investors exposure to the infrastructure supporting a more resilient and reliable power grid.

EquityMultiple

For accredited investors looking beyond stocks and bonds, EquityMultiple provides access to vetted commercial real estate deals starting at $5,000, with only ~5% of opportunities passing their due diligence process.

FarmTogether

Farmland has historically held its value through market volatility and delivered returns uncorrelated to stocks and bonds. For accredited investors,FarmTogether offers direct access to high-quality U.S. farmland starting at $15,000 — fully managed, with no landlord headaches.

Fundrise

Private real estate and private credit can add income and stability to a stock-heavy portfolio.Fundrise offers access to diversified private real estate and credit strategies through an easy-to-use platform, with professionally managed portfolios designed to generate passive income and long-term growth.

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