Learning HubLong-run market history, charted.
Each chart takes a number that gets talked about loosely and shows you the actual series, built on real data from authoritative sources. Then it explains, in plain terms, what the history means if you are trying to buy a home.
The Costs Turned Around. The Age Didn't.
1989 to 2026The force outside the housing market: what today's first-time buyer carries before the house price even enters the math.
The Price to Income Ratio
1971 to 2026The worst mortgage payment in history produced the youngest buyers ever. Today's ordinary payment is producing the oldest. One ratio explains it.
The Age of the First-Time Homebuyer
1981 to 2025For forty years the answer was about 30. It is now 40, the oldest ever recorded, and the reason is not the monthly payment.
Homes Priced in the S&P 500
1970 to 2026Stocks beat houses for four decades. So why did houses build the middle class? One word: leverage. Two charts, one answer.
The Gold-to-Housing Ratio
1970 to 2026How many ounces of gold it takes to buy the average American home. Right now: the fewest ever recorded.
The 10-Year Treasury and the 30-Year Mortgage
1953 to 2026Seventy years of the benchmark rate that sets mortgage pricing, and the mortgage rate riding on top of it. Today sits near the long-run normal.
The Mortgage Payment Burden
1971 to 2026The payment on the median home as a share of the median income, 1971 to today. The surprise: today is almost exactly average.
Home Prices, Inflation, and Family Income
1970 to 2025Three lines, one race, 55 years. Homes rose 19.5x, incomes 10.7x, inflation 8.3x. The gap is the whole story.
The Rent Line
1970 to 2026Rent versus home prices since 1970. Home prices dipped eight times. Rent has never gone down. Not once.
More Geek Charts coming. Two more are in the queue.