For some perspective on the all-important U.S. real estate market, today's chart illustrates the inflation-adjusted median price of a single-family home in the United States over the past 42 years.
Not only did housing prices increase at a rapid rate from 1991 to 2005, the rate at which housing prices increased -- increased. That brings us to today's chart which illustrates how the inflation-adjusted median home price is currently -42% off its 2005 peak.
That's a -$112,000 drop.
In fact, a home buyer who bought the median priced single-family home at the 1979 peak has actually seen that home lose value
(-13.7% loss). Not an impressive performance considering that more than three decades have passed.
It is worth noting that the median priced home is currently at the bottom of a price range that existed from the late 1970s into the mid-1990s.
Not only did housing prices increase at a rapid rate from 1991 to 2005, the rate at which housing prices increased -- increased. That brings us to today's chart which illustrates how the inflation-adjusted median home price is currently -42% off its 2005 peak.
That's a -$112,000 drop.
In fact, a home buyer who bought the median priced single-family home at the 1979 peak has actually seen that home lose value
(-13.7% loss). Not an impressive performance considering that more than three decades have passed.
It is worth noting that the median priced home is currently at the bottom of a price range that existed from the late 1970s into the mid-1990s.
![[AOT]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MI-BO055A_AOT_NS_20120318151802.jpg)
![[BIZHOME-jump]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-BE477_BIZHOM_NS_20120131172707.jpg)
