Atrios has a chart of housing prices going back to 1890. The values are all adjusted for inflation, of course. Take a look, and then tell me: do you think the housing boom of recent years is likely to continue?
{ 2006 08 29 }
A Babbling Stream of Semi-Consciousness
{ 2006 08 29 }
Atrios has a chart of housing prices going back to 1890. The values are all adjusted for inflation, of course. Take a look, and then tell me: do you think the housing boom of recent years is likely to continue?
mr wade | 27-Sep-06 at 9:35 pm | Permalink
New house prices have increased over the last hundred years like everything else, in part, because the government has continued to print more and more money, driving the value of each dollar down in the process. That’s inflation. Secondarliy, the reason they have increased faster then some other things is because back then an “average” new home might have 600 to 800 square feet of living area. Today the average is around 2000. Bigger house, bigger cost. Additional to both of these issues, the amount of land, unlike the amount of dollars, cannot be increased in any significant way, so the value of land has risen against the dollar, and has increased in value because of demand, a double hit.