Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

Hi, does anyone here know of a source where I could find nationwide median house prices for the last 60+ years?

I'd like to graph the ratio of housing prices to income over time, supposedly home prices have varied between 2x and 3x median family income (until now), but I'd like to actually see the data on this. This would show how far prices are still out of wack nationwide, and it would also be interesting to compare this graph to other things, like interest rates, to see if there is any correlation.

I've found a source on median family incomes since 1945, but can't find the same for home prices. Any idea where to look for this?
I've looked all over census.gov, the data doesn't appear to be there.

I've been asking around about this and no one seems to be able to come up with anything, perhaps I'll have better luck here. I've found data on new house prices, but not on existing house prices which is what I would need.

Case Shiller has quarterly same-home data back to 1987, however it's not clear (to me) whether it's truly national data, or merely their 10/20 city composite average (which would only be useful in comparing to the median incomes of those cities).

The Census Bureau has some marginally useful data back to 1940 . OFHEO (now FHFA) has some data back to 1991 .


I'm pretty sure, however, that you won't find any data to support your 2x-3x theory. I've never heard that. 4x median, yes. The important number, historically speaking, is 3x your household income (aka the 28% guideline).

FHFA/OFHEO has data back to the seventies. that is the longest time series I have seen for housing.

Overall I think comparing national indexes vs. national income is of limited value - median or average income could be in Tallahassee while the median house is in Lubbock.

Using the OFHEO data and income series from BEA it is relatively easy to run the comparisons at a state level. I have done that in the past but even that was of limited use for the same reasons.