The Japanese novelist Kobo Abe once wrote, “There is always order in the distant view. No matter how strange the happening, it can never project from the frame, from the order which this distant view possesses.” For the past several years, the U.S. housing market has been seen through the spectrum of a distant view, where all appeared to be copacetic. This vibrant and seemingly healthy market was hailed for not only rebounding with unprecedented vigor from the wreckage of the Great Recession, but also for its ability to bring positive energy during the pandemic when other sectors of the U.S. economy were paralyzed. But when one abandons the distant view and moves closer to the subject, the picture becomes very different. The factors that gave the housing market the appearance of strength seem warped and off-kilter upon deeper examination while the fissures snaking through its foundations begin to appear …