Investing cash in other places and expecting a big crash. Laugh at me if you want.
Just make sure you're understanding charts like this: https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/ Maybe we are due for a correction - but there are reasons why housing went up so much the last few years. One is correction from the bust after 08, another is because people drastically changed their lives in response to the pandemic. It is not super easy to get a loan. It isn't going to be like 08.
Yep, it is definitely not encouraging. If there is a deflation event that I am looking for, it also won't be easy to get a loan to actually buy a cheap property and it'll be hard to keep a job to pay the mortgage. But what can you do as someone who doesn't have the capital already and believes we are closer to a top than to a bottom.