That did happen to Boomers, but I wouldn't assume it will happen again. Over a long enough time period housing values must approximately track inflation, because there is an upper threshold of income percentage (certainly below 100%) people can afford to spend on housing. Currently, mortgage rates are about 2x what inflation has been over decades historically. Boomers mostly made money with regulatory capture- landowners were able to politically block housing construction during a time of increasing population, causing a short term anomaly where people were paying steadily increasingly high percentages of income on housing. Both that regulatory capture, and the population growth are disappearing now.
When I run the numbers where I live based on current market rates buying a home is predicted to be a big money loser over time vs renting and investing the difference. Renting lets you buy into housing with the prices and tax rates of when the owners bought them decades ago.
Buying still has a ton of tax advantages and gives people access to an incredible amount of leverage that they wouldn't be able to get otherwise.
For what it's worth, I don't disagree with you, and I think renting makes more sense than buying right now for the first time in decades, but it's just by a hair.
When I run the numbers where I live based on current market rates buying a home is predicted to be a big money loser over time vs renting and investing the difference. Renting lets you buy into housing with the prices and tax rates of when the owners bought them decades ago.