[gusgus01]

I'd actually just say that comps magically anchor prices in the constrained market we've been experiencing. As a person who was looking to buy a few times over the last few years, comps strongly affect appraisals which affects whether a company will issue a loan for the house (appraisers actually send you the houses they based their appraisal on). Plus realtors base their understanding of the market on comps when they try to help you form your offer. And of course sellers will look at comps when deciding what to ask for and whether to accept your offer.

Now this only really works in constrained markets, but intrinsically there's always a time constraints in buying (our lifetime of course, but also life events and lease renewals and er ). There's of course also selection constraints because of the aforementioned time constraints, and location, and whether new construction in happening within those.

Saying "they impact listing prices but not necessarily clearing prices." might be logically consistent, but is disconnected from the reality of the housing market.

[BizarroLand]

All of you are assuming that buyers are rational, as if pump and dump in crypto was somehow isolated to the online world and not possible in the housing market. You don't have to have complete market capture to make that happen. All you need is to have enough volume that it causes potential buyers and sellers to play along.

If you're big enough, you can cause prices to ripple, get others to lose rationality and buy in on the ascent as you cash out and leave everyone else holding the bag for the crash.