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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   24382 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 15, 2026

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The Case-Shiller index went down (in nominal terms) from 2006-2012. It's roughly flat (again in nominal terms) now. Median sales price went down from 2006-2009, and is dropping now.

When I go and look at a graph of US house prices vs median income, that's not exactly the conclusion that comes first to mind!

https://www.longtermtrends.com/home-price-median-annual-income-ratio/

How about 'home price/median income is at its peak, higher even than the very top of the housing bubble' or 'the salary needed to buy a home doubled from 2017 to 2025'.

The claim was "housing prices only go up". They don't. That's different from the claim that housing prices are high now; they are. As for that graph, since the median household income series ends in 2024, data after that aren't accurate.

The claim was ''house prices up only!' lending' is bad, gesturing at the idea that bidding up the price of land is bad and a poor use of credit. Not that house prices only go up. House prices occasionally fall but have been rising as a general trend since financial deregulation. House prices are higher than ever before.

The facts straightforwardly support my conclusions, whereas your claim is misleading in the extreme.

The Case-Shiller index went down (in nominal terms) from 2006-2012. It's roughly flat (again in nominal terms) now. Median sales price went down from 2006-2009, and is dropping now.

"House prices up only!" lending implies that lending for houses is safe because house prices only go up. Since this is not in fact the case, it is your claim that is misleading.

A lot of things have been rising as a general trend (the S&P 500, for instance). That's different than monotonic increase.

As for "financial deregulation", I don't know which particular one you mean.

Thanks. House prices mostly only go up. A correction highly relevant to my point.

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