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Silver is gold's smaller, more volatile cousin — and that volatility shows up clearly when comparing it to a slow-moving series like median home prices. The chart indexes both series to 100 at the displayed start year so you can compare growth rates regardless of absolute price levels.
Silver has a large industrial-demand component (electronics, solar, photography historically) on top of its monetary role. Home prices reflect housing supply, mortgage rates, and demographics — slow-moving fundamentals. The two series respond to very different forcing functions.
The Case-Shiller National Home Price Index begins in January 1987. Earlier home-price data is in the Shiller historical dataset back to 1890 but not yet wired into this chart.
Sometimes — when both metals rise together, silver tends to rise faster (the "high beta" property). When both fall, silver tends to fall faster. Toggle gold on the chart from the silver vs. home prices page to see how the two metals correlate.
S&P 500 total return — price + reinvested dividends
4-year public, in-state tuition + required fees (NCES)
consumer price index, all urban consumers (BLS via FRED)
median U.S. home prices (Case-Shiller)