[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]  EndGame Macro [@onechancefreedm](/creator/twitter/onechancefreedm) on x 39.8K followers Created: 2025-07-22 02:41:54 UTC This article from ZeroHedge(@zerohedge), titled “The Decline of U.S. Housing Affordability,” delivers a sobering analysis of how the American housing market has diverged sharply from historical affordability norms. It anchors its argument in the home price to income ratio, which once hovered near a sustainable benchmark of X in 1970 but has since surged to over XXX by 2023. Back in 1970, the median home cost was just XXX times the median income. As of 2022, it had peaked at a staggering 5.83, nearly double the historical average. The article’s central thesis is that homeownership, once a pillar of American economic mobility and middle class stability, has become increasingly out of reach. The reasons include both soaring nominal home prices and stagnation in inflation adjusted wages, compressing affordability and pushing many households into lifelong renting. Using the tables provided, we can see that real household income has remained relatively stagnant over the past five decades, especially when adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, housing prices have risen relentlessly, often far outpacing income growth. For example, the inflation-adjusted median household income in 1967 was about $53,530, while the median home cost $207,346, giving a ratio of XXXX. Fast forward to 2023, and income has risen to $80,610, while home prices jumped to $428,600, yielding a ratio of XXXX. This growing divergence illustrates not just cyclical overheating but a structural shift in the housing market, increasingly shaped by financialization, investor speculation, zoning policy distortions, and in some regions, an outright supply squeeze. Against this backdrop, the conversation naturally turns to wealth preservation. When traditional wage based purchasing power erodes and basic shelter becomes a speculative asset, the question becomes: what assets have actually preserved and grown purchasing power in this environment? The answer is revealing. From 1967 through 2025, the only major assets that have outpaced the cumulative loss in dollar purchasing power are the NASDAQ Composite, gold, select real estate (particularly coastal cities), and Bitcoin (post-2010). The NASDAQ, even with volatility, has delivered annualized returns well in excess of CPI or M2 growth, driven by tech led innovation cycles and network effects. Gold, particularly between 1971 and 1980 and again post 2008, served as a monetary hedge in periods of Fed credibility collapse or fiscal instability. More recently, Bitcoin has acted as an emergent digital scarcity asset, with its performance from 2010–2021 far outpacing all traditional stores of value, though that outperformance has become more erratic post 2021 as institutional co-optation and regulation increased. In contrast, cash and bonds have generally eroded in real value since the 1970s due to compounding inflation. Even the S&P XXX has not consistently outrun housing price inflation relative to income since 2000 unless dividends are reinvested and taxes optimized. In essence, the chart shows the silent tax of inflation playing out through asset exclusion. If you weren’t exposed to asymmetric assets like tech equities or gold at the right time, your income, even if stable, was running in place, or worse, going backward in real terms. It underscores the imperative to not just save, but to allocate wisely, with an eye on structural asset inflation and long term currency debasement. The American dream was restructured to favor those who owned scarce, scalable, or speculation linked assets while the middle class bore the full weight of financial repression.  XXXXXX engagements  **Related Topics** [housing market](/topic/housing-market) [macro](/topic/macro) [endgame](/topic/endgame) [Post Link](https://x.com/onechancefreedm/status/1947487236100125040)
[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]
EndGame Macro @onechancefreedm on x 39.8K followers
Created: 2025-07-22 02:41:54 UTC
This article from ZeroHedge(@zerohedge), titled “The Decline of U.S. Housing Affordability,” delivers a sobering analysis of how the American housing market has diverged sharply from historical affordability norms. It anchors its argument in the home price to income ratio, which once hovered near a sustainable benchmark of X in 1970 but has since surged to over XXX by 2023. Back in 1970, the median home cost was just XXX times the median income. As of 2022, it had peaked at a staggering 5.83, nearly double the historical average. The article’s central thesis is that homeownership, once a pillar of American economic mobility and middle class stability, has become increasingly out of reach. The reasons include both soaring nominal home prices and stagnation in inflation adjusted wages, compressing affordability and pushing many households into lifelong renting.
Using the tables provided, we can see that real household income has remained relatively stagnant over the past five decades, especially when adjusted for inflation. Meanwhile, housing prices have risen relentlessly, often far outpacing income growth. For example, the inflation-adjusted median household income in 1967 was about $53,530, while the median home cost $207,346, giving a ratio of XXXX. Fast forward to 2023, and income has risen to $80,610, while home prices jumped to $428,600, yielding a ratio of XXXX. This growing divergence illustrates not just cyclical overheating but a structural shift in the housing market, increasingly shaped by financialization, investor speculation, zoning policy distortions, and in some regions, an outright supply squeeze.
Against this backdrop, the conversation naturally turns to wealth preservation. When traditional wage based purchasing power erodes and basic shelter becomes a speculative asset, the question becomes: what assets have actually preserved and grown purchasing power in this environment? The answer is revealing.
From 1967 through 2025, the only major assets that have outpaced the cumulative loss in dollar purchasing power are the NASDAQ Composite, gold, select real estate (particularly coastal cities), and Bitcoin (post-2010). The NASDAQ, even with volatility, has delivered annualized returns well in excess of CPI or M2 growth, driven by tech led innovation cycles and network effects. Gold, particularly between 1971 and 1980 and again post 2008, served as a monetary hedge in periods of Fed credibility collapse or fiscal instability. More recently, Bitcoin has acted as an emergent digital scarcity asset, with its performance from 2010–2021 far outpacing all traditional stores of value, though that outperformance has become more erratic post 2021 as institutional co-optation and regulation increased.
In contrast, cash and bonds have generally eroded in real value since the 1970s due to compounding inflation. Even the S&P XXX has not consistently outrun housing price inflation relative to income since 2000 unless dividends are reinvested and taxes optimized.
In essence, the chart shows the silent tax of inflation playing out through asset exclusion. If you weren’t exposed to asymmetric assets like tech equities or gold at the right time, your income, even if stable, was running in place, or worse, going backward in real terms. It underscores the imperative to not just save, but to allocate wisely, with an eye on structural asset inflation and long term currency debasement. The American dream was restructured to favor those who owned scarce, scalable, or speculation linked assets while the middle class bore the full weight of financial repression.
XXXXXX engagements
Related Topics housing market macro endgame