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1963–2026 · A MEDIAN U.S. HOME vs GOLD
A median U.S. home cost about 343 ounces of gold in 1976. Today it costs roughly 90. The chart below tracks that ratio every month since 1963 — over the long arc, gold has held its purchasing power against shelter while the dollar has not.
Avg. a median U.S. home
$17,800
Spot gold
$35.35 / oz
= 504 oz
Avg. a median U.S. home
$403,200
Spot gold
$4,625 / oz
= 87.2 oz
The dollar number is the wrong yardstick — by definition, the dollar weakens over time. Pricing a home in ounces of gold strips the currency out of the comparison and asks a sharper question: what would your savings have bought, then versus now? The same question framed differently.
In purchasing-power terms, yes — a median home costs fewer ounces today than at most points in the past 50 years. The /vs/gold-vs-home-prices page shows the same data as a normalized growth comparison if you want the indexed view instead.
Gold is volatile relative to the slow-moving home-price series. The 2000 peak (~620 oz to buy a home) reflects gold's dot-com-era trough, not a housing spike. The 2011 trough reflects gold's post-financial-crisis run. Both are real; the long-run trend is the line moving down.
Hardcoded 1971 anchor: 12 oz