The money supply grows about 8% on average, if you believe that money can flow from an ever more abundant asset into an ever scarcer asset then its really just two pieces of a puzzle.

Housing was likely no different before 2008, a lack of supply relative to cheap debt kept prices elevated, it wasnt until housing completions were too high that it began to fail. Before then it was simply a liquidity sponge being used to create a windfall to ultimately increase aggregate demand, which is how our monetary system functions.