Reply to Example of how housing prices have far outpaced inflation

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/1028-N-Frederick-St-22205/home/11237727

Sold for $52,500 in 1976.  Its inflation adjusted price should be $297,309, but instead it’s on the market for almost three times that.

Just posting this for the benefit of Boomers who contend that they paid 12% interest on their mortgages and don’t see what the issue is.[/quote]

Since 1976, the median household income in Arlington has increased by around 60% after adjusting for inflation. The average household size in Arlington has also declined from 2.7 to 2.1  Adjusting for these variables and the difference in interest rates, this home is actually more affordable to the typical Arlington resident than it was in 1976. This house is literally more affordable for the median household after adjusting for household size than when the “boomers” you dislike bought it bought it in 1976. [/quote]

Excuse me, I thought there was no fact-checking in these threads. &lt;/Vance&gt;

[/quote]

You're being disingenuous or wishcasting. The PP is playing games with numbers to try to refute the OP when at the end of the day Arlington is substantially more expensive, when when adjusting for inflation. In the 70s Arlington was a basic middle class suburb for middling government employees, it did not have any cachet till the mid to late 90s. What happened? The population of the DMV exploded, the population of the US nationally had gained 100+ million since the 70s, the supply of buildable land for large new subdivisions ran out, greater affluence among the upper 10% meant more dollars chasing the same limited supply. On top of it, household sizes did also decrease meaning even more demand.

Real estate in the 70s was just a different world entirely. The 70s also had a different basket of goods than we do today and everything we spend is affected by the other items in the basket. To use as a commonly cited example, the people starting out in the 70s didn't have the kind of high educational costs we do today. On the flip side, you could also point out that the mid 70s to early 80s had high unemployment too and it was a struggle to find jobs. So there are winners and losers. But one of the losers has generally been young people getting on the housing ladder in high cost regions. [/quote]

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