House Prices: The Long View

There was an interesting post at Debit vs. Credit two days ago suggesting that now may not be the time to buy a house. The gist of the argument was that house prices still have a way to go before they return to normal. This was illustrated with a chart of median new home prices as a ratio to median income since 1963. That’s not the most ideal set of data to use, for reasons that I will spare you.

The most useful measure of house prices are the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. They only go back to 1987, but one of the co-inventors of the index, Robert Shiller, has chained together other useful house indexes to patch up a composite going back to 1890. (This is the third post that has mentioned Prof. Shiller in the past month. Just coincidence, I swear.)

I downloaded the data from his site, updated and cleaned up a few things, and produced the following chart, showing the inflation-adjusted sale price index for existing homes since 1890.

If you’ve never seen something like this before, you may be experiencing some shock and confusion. This is normal. Just keep breathing deeply. You thought house prices went up over time, didn’t you? Well, they do, but mostly because of inflation. Recent experience excepted, house prices are generally flat over long periods of time once inflation is factored out.

A few other observations worth making:

1) The last index value in this chart (which is for November 2008) is 144.0, still 13% higher than the 1989 peak of 127.4. That does suggest that we have a little more to go, or at least did as of November. On the other hand, it’s already down 40% from the 2005 peak of 202.5, so the worst may be behind us.

2) The recent run-up in house prices actually began in 1996. (From 1996 to 2005 real prices went up 86%.) It may not have gotten weird enough to be noticed in the media until the last years of the boom, but the index began hitting all-time highs as early as 2000. I mention this because it’s currently fashionable to blame the low interest rates of 2003-04 for the housing bubble. They sure didn’t help, but the worst you can say is that they were gasoline thrown on an already blazing fire.

3) As impressive as the 1996-2005 run up is, it is not entirely out of the ordinary. From 1942 to 1947, real house prices went up 60%, which is the best five year run in history. Further, prices pretty much stabilized after that and did not give back very much of the gain. This needs to be pointed out to those who say, in hindsight, that of course house prices had to fall after 2005, because the rapid gains made in years before were just unsustainable.

So is this a good time to buy a house? That depends. Do you need one to live in? There are many factors to consider, including interest rates, tax breaks and other incentives from the government, and local market conditions. (It is worth stating the possibly obvious that the chart above is a national average. Specifics of a particular area may differ both in the short and long run.)

But if you are looking at a house as a possibly shrewd investment, something you can buy cheap now and sell dear later on, you are likely to be disappointed. Even if the crisis were over today, and house prices returned to their pre-bubble habits, the normal state of things is that they don’t go up very much.

Economics, Housing, Robert Shiller | Frank Curmudgeon | February 19, 2009 9:17 am

15 Comments

By Sara Paul, July 20, 2010 @ 7:04 pm

As a Realtor, thanks for pointing out that home ownership is first of all: shelter, a place to retire or raise a family, or start your life, etc.; and secondly: a long term investment. Too many people were seeing their homes not as secure shelter but an ATM machine. If people would just go back to 20% down, they could ride the waves of the economy and if life changes, they can get out.
By Michael Covington, August 2, 2010 @ 9:40 am

Interesting. My impression is that the quality of houses went down in the 1920-1940 period (lots of small, hastily built ones, most no longer standing), and there may have been a modest rise in quality after 1980, which would explain why the graph goes down and up a bit. But certainly no sharp rise in quality in the 1990s.
By robb, March 10, 2011 @ 3:45 pm

Good article. I think the most recent bubble was different from the 40′s in that the rapid increase from 42 to 47 took house prices from below average in 42 back up to a little above average in 47, while in the increase from 96 to 05, prices started a little above average in 96 and went to ridiculous levels in 05. I think this means we still have a long way to go down.
By Maple Leaf, May 5, 2011 @ 11:24 am

I just bought a small condo, after much tortured deliberation. I needed a place to live and rents in Seattle are rising so owning seemed a better option. I don’t regret it. My mortgage (with dues and taxes) equals the same as rent. When I bought, I calculated what I could afford and stuck with that. My mortgage interest is tax-deductable so it’s a win-win situation. Because I purchased smart, I can still put money in savings. I agree with Sarah. Homes are purchased to be homes. If you get to the point where you’re borrowing on your home, it’s probably down hill from there.
By Marsha Killington, Colonial Heights VA, May 14, 2011 @ 4:06 pm

Housing costs need to include taxes, insurance, and (most of all) the costs of maintenance and upgrades to be comparable. My own house costs between 5 and 10% of its value each and every year just to maintain and replace things like roofing, HVAC systems, driveways, landscaping, masonry repointing, painting inside and out, not to mention colossally expensive upgrades like kitchens and baths just to maintain an average condition for my neighborhood–else the house is unsalable even in a normal market. Caveat emptor!
By car transport quotes, September 10, 2011 @ 7:09 am

Ya,I’m totally agree with you here. Really a nice observation is presented by you here regarding home prices. Keep up such posts in near future also.
By Keenan, May 23, 2013 @ 10:00 pm

Greetings! I know this is kinda off topic but I was
wondering if you knew where I could get a captcha
plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m
having difficulty finding one? Thanks a lot!
By Rodney, May 26, 2013 @ 12:08 pm

Howdy, I do believe your site could be having web browser compatibility issues.
Whenever I take a look at your site in Safari,
it looks fine but when opening in IE, it’s got some overlapping issues. I simply wanted to provide you with a quick heads up! Besides that, wonderful blog!
By http://nastroyke-info.ru/, March 13, 2023 @ 8:09 pm

Hmm is anyone else encountering problems with the pictures
on this blog loading? I’m trying to determine if
its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
By карта из дерева на стену с подсветкой, March 14, 2023 @ 6:37 am

I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your
blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to
come back down the road. Cheers
By карта из дерева на стену с подсветкой, March 14, 2023 @ 6:46 pm

What’s up it’s me, I am also visiting this site daily,
this site is in fact nice and the visitors are truly sharing pleasant thoughts.
By карта мира деревянная на стену с подсветкой, March 20, 2023 @ 1:51 am

This piece of writing will help the internet viewers for creating new blog or even a blog from start
to end.
By карта из дерева на стену с подсветкой, March 21, 2023 @ 6:52 pm

I’m gone to tell my little brother, that he should also pay a
visit this weblog on regular basis to take updated from
hottest reports.
By http://hitmind.ru/, March 22, 2023 @ 5:16 pm

I’m not sure where you are getting your information, but good topic.
I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding
more. Thanks for magnificent info I was looking for this information for my mission.