“The only benefit is if we were to drop dead, our kids would be able to cash out at the inflated price”
Sounds like you’re minimizing the benefit when you should be jumping for joy. Passing appreciated assets to your heirs tax free is the point of any good estate planning strategy. Celebrate your good fortune!
Our income is mid six figures, so the additional costs of maintaining the house are easily manageable, but that’s not true of all our neighbors.
I’ll be happy to leave an appreciated asset to the kids, but appreciated house prices don’t have any positive impact on our daily circumstances. That is true also for the millions of homeowning retirees who are on reduced incomes but whose living costs have steadily risen, often dramatically so. Many of them will be financially incapable of keeping their homes.