Or not. Has there ever been a time in modern U.S. history where home prices actually declined over a period of 5 or more years?
Real estate is always local.
In many American cities the “ghetto” real estate has been stuck at ridiculously low prices for decades.
Other cities dependent on single industries can also have slumps of a decade or longer if the industry leaves the area and the population drops—upstate New York (Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo) is an example of this.
Sure there has. But mostly in real terms. The price of a house is subject to inflation, which raises the nominal price relentlessly.
From about 1980 until about 1985 in Houston. Ronald Reagan and the King of Saudi Arabia worked together to drastically lower oil prices which bankrupted the USSR. A friend worked for BOA then and said it was common for people to have job somewhere else and not be able to sell their home in Houston for the mortgaged amount. They’d come into the bank with the keys and title and say,”It’s yours” and walk out.