let me put it this way.
nz housing stock is worth about 1,680 billion $$. if housing prices where to match 70's (ish) in affordability then todays housing stick should be worth 560 billion $ (roughly).
if it wasn't for the housing market nz economy would have an extra 1120 billion $$ in circulation. in fact it would be more because of the interest we would not have paid.
the market ties up a huge amount of money so people can think they are wealthy while they starve to death.