The only way that owning real estate may ultimately be a better inflation hedge then other things is going to be a function of leverage, a function of debt. But there is lots of risk there, if you borrow money and house prices drop first.
But if we get real hyperinflation which is what I expect to happen, if you borrow a lot of money and and use to buy a house and you don`t pay all the house, lets say you buy a 200,000 USD house but you use only 20,000 USD of your own money and you borrow the other 180,000 USD. You are not tying up yours 200,000 in an asset. You are only tying up 20,000 USD. You take advantage of the low mortgages today, a 30 year fixed rate mortgage of 5% and you make your payments for a while and all of a sudden there is massive inflation and at some point you may be able to pay your entire mortgage with the money that you might of otherwise use to buy a can of soda.
You end up having your house virtually for free.(Wall Street Unspun transcript)
