By Emily Sherman | Your Valley
Homeownership lets you build equity, put down roots, and make a place your own. But in recent years, achieving this part of the American dream has become much more difficult.
Adjusting for inflation, the cost of a newly constructed single-family home in 2022 was over 2 1/2 times more expensive than in the 1960s. So for young adults in their mid-20s—an age when many people think they should buy a home—the goal might seem out of reach. The actual average age of a first-time home buyerin 2022 was 36, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a new, single-family home for the last 60 years to illustrate how home prices have grown. Using Census Bureau data, we analyzed the median list price for a newly constructed home from 1963 to 2021 and the Consumer Price Index to calculate each year’s absolute and inflation-adjusted prices.
The basis of the Census Bureau data is new constructions, which are often more expensive than existing homes. The list price includes both the house and the land. This story does not include houses built for rent, those built by the owner, or ones by a general contractor on the owner’s land.
It’s true that location plays a role in home prices. For example, homes in the Northeast and West have always generally been higher than the rest of the country. But the data still shows that average prices have grown substantially over time.
Check out the cost of buying a home the year you turned 25.
Homes continue to get more expensive
Stacker
Adjusted for inflation, the cost of a newly constructed family home is more than twice as expensive in the early 2020s as it was in 1960. With some fluctuation over the years, costs have grown steadily, reaching a median of more than $450,000 by 2022—with regions like the Northeast showing even higher prices.
1963
Lambert // Getty Images
– Median list price: $18,000
– Inflation-adjusted price: $171,938
– Median list price by region:
— Northeast: $20,300 ($193,908 in today’s dollars)
— Midwest: $17,900 ($170,982 in today’s dollars)
— South: $16,100 ($153,789 in today’s dollars)
— West: $18,800 ($179,579 in today’s dollars)
1964
Archive Photos // Getty Images
– Median list price: $18,900
– Inflation-adjusted price: $178,179
– Median list price by region:
— Northeast: $20,300 ($191,377 in today’s dollars)
— Midwest: $19,400 ($182,893 in today’s dollars)
— South: $16,700 ($157,439 in today’s dollars)
— West: $20,400 ($192,320 in today’s dollars)
1965
Archive Photos // Getty Images
– Median list price: $20,000
– Inflation-adjusted price: $185,619
– Median list price by region:
— Northeast: $21,500 ($199,540 in today’s dollars)
— Midwest: $21,600 ($200,468 in today’s dollars)
— South: $17,500 ($162,416 in today’s dollars)
— West: $21,600 ($200,468 in today’s dollars)
