If we wanted to do this, it would be trivial to introduce a 100% capital gains tax on the sale of real estate.

Instead, we give people an exemption for their real estate capital gains, so they can buy a bigger house without paying taxes at all. Then these same folks pull up the latter by voting in restrictive zoning to protect their property values.

There is one verifiably rigged game in finance, and it's residential real estate in affluent areas. It's the only industry where overt collusion and cartel-like behavior is completely legal. The result is generations of people who rationally load themselves up with way more debt than they probably should, because getting on the latter is the only way to stay above water within our lifetime.