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The national median home value has increased by more than 100% from 1970 to 2017.
- Buying a home these days is more expensive than ever.
- We calculated how much the median value of a home has changed over nearly 50 years using data from the US Census Bureau.
- The national median home value adjusted for inflation has increased by 103% - and more than half of all states have seen their median home value more than double.
The cost to buy a home in America is more expensive than it's ever been - so much so that millennial homeownership is at record lows because they have to spend more time saving money for a down payment.
So just how much has the value of a home changed over the past 50 years?
To find out, we took to the US Census Bureau, which provides a table showing median home values from previous decades in each state and the District of Columbia. We compared the median home value in 1970, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars using the Consumer Price Index, to the median home value in 2017, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, and calculated the percentage change.
Note that median means that half of the homes are valued above that number and half below. This data technically covers the past 47 years, but as the US Census Bureau's table provided information on a decade basis, it's the closest information available to the past 50 years.
In 1970, the national median home value adjusted for inflation was $107,291; in 2017, it's $217,600 - that's a 103% increase. In fact, more than half of all US States (including Washington, DC) have seen a median home value increase of more than 100%.
Take a look below, ranked from lowest to highest median home value percentage change.