I knew that housing prices had declined since their 2006 apex, but I hadn’t realized just how far they had fallen. The highwater mark of NAR’s median existing home price was $227,100, which is $71,000 more than last month’s $156,100. That amounts to a 31.3% decline in home prices, which is 37.4% when corrected for CPI-U inflation. The chart below puts it in perspective.
It may be worth keeping this ongoing price collapse in mind before concluding that rising metal, commodity, and stock market prices prove the inflationary case, especially since the effects of that price collapse still remain unaccounted for.