The real estate frenzy helped the FTSE NAREIT U.S. Real Estate Index jump an annualized 15.6% over the decade through 1989, sending prices and investor sentiment higher. The index is up less than half that at an annualized pace of 7.4% over the decade through 2015 but that may be about to change.

New buyers have emerged from the east and it's starting to look like the 1980s all over again.