In case you thought real estate was not that important, think again. Real estate impacts almost everything.

•  The affordability issue that so many in the US are experiencing, not just the poor or middle class, is driven mostly by the cost of housing.
•  Surges in inflation have been driven largely by the cost of housing (both sales prices and rental prices).
•  Surges in the cost and availability of electricity and power have been driven by the cost of real estate related to data centers. Power used by data centers in advanced stages of planning in Pennsylvania jumped more than 40% to 20.5 gigawatts in the third quarter, up from 14.4 gigawatts previously.
•  Taxation related to real estate is a big component of tax disputes and concerns.
•  People living in tents in your neighborhood or along the highway? Also related to real estate.
•  Huge disagreements between neighbors? YIMBY's and NIMBY's arguing about new construction or real estate.
•  Quality of water, air or noise? Lots of it goes back to the real estate for industries that pollute excessively.
•  Employment? While a few million are in sales, leasing and construction, many more are employed in landscaping, general maintenance, garbage collection, cleaning, repairs, servicing, etc. 
•  Tax revenue to pay for police, schools, hospitals, firefighters, etc? 70-73% of all local taxes in the US come from real estate.
•  The overall economy? The total value of residential real estate in the US is about $55 trillion. Commercial real estate is worth around $26 trillion. Combined, that's worth more than the market cap of almost 32 Walmart corporations.