US house prices in gold: the 'housing boom' that wasn't

The dollar story

The US median home sale price has gone from around $65,000 in 1980 to roughly $420,000 in 2024 — a ~6.5x increase. Headlines call this a multi-decade housing boom.

The gold story

In ounces of gold, the median US home cost about 100–130 oz in 1980, fell to ~100 oz by the late 1980s, peaked near 600 oz in 2001 (the dollar's strongest moment vs gold), collapsed to ~140 oz by 2011, and today sits around 160–180 oz.

In other words: in real terms, US housing today costs roughly what it cost 40 years ago. The "boom" was largely a currency event, not a housing event.

Why it matters

If you bought a house with cash in 2001 you paid the highest real price in living memory. If you bought one in 2011 with cash you got an extraordinary bargain in real terms. Mortgage rates and dollar prices obscure all of this. The gold chart makes it obvious.