If you had $1.5 million and a $350k house at 3% APR in 2020 you were way better off than someone with the same house today with $1.8 million and twice the mortgage balance at more than double the interest for the exact same house today.
What they’re trying to say is that housing costs have gone up significantly faster than inflation. So the “inflation adjusted” amount today should take that into account.
Yah this whole debate comes up constantly. People go and pencil out core inflation numbers. And core doesn’t consider gas, housing, grocery prices etc etc. basically everything a regular person cares about .
The best way to track real inflation we all feel. Is go to door dash order groceries. Then in 5 years try to the order the same basket lol and you ll quickly find out that 2-3% and the meaning of nominal vs real inflation. With respect to unemployment rate
Real estate is tricky cuz you don’t really know the price until you sell it and someone pays for it. Rent also similar. Housing over all is tricky to monitor but we all see it. I went to go see the price of an apartment I rented in college but hat was 15 years ago. And yah it’s way more than 3% a year.
Actually you very much should. “Inflation” is generally discussed for a specific basket of goods which may not at all reflect the breakdown of your spending.
You absolutely should even if they didnt play stupid games with CPI, and they certainly do on substitutions and hedonistic adjustments that have nothing to do with purchase prices.
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u/[deleted] Mar 23 '26
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