Cheap credit makes a big difference, at least in things like real estate and automobiles, because the people borrowing don't look at the price of the item, they look at the payment. If the payment is within range due to the price or because of the interest rates, it makes no difference to most of them. Over the last few years we've seen historically low interest rates in housing and especially in hot markets, this has enabled insane increases in price. When I bought in 2014 in Southern California, I thought prices were already insane. They've literally doubled since then. This is why you don't see as big a jump in housing prices in Western NY where I grew up, because property taxes are effectively 3%+, which puts a ceiling on price. People wrap that tax payment into their monthly mortgage cost, so it makes a big difference in what the payment ends up being, so the price of the house either stays relatively low or the people don't buy it (oftentimes because they bank wouldn't lend it to them otherwise).
That said, I agree with what you say about access to credit. I find it odd that it's so easy to get a loan for college, a car, or a house that you don't really need and will yield you no income, has no collateral in one case and depreciating collateral in the other two, but getting a loan for a business that will make money is like pulling teeth.
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