Housing's Parabolic Prices

For some perspective into the all-important US real estate market, today's chart illustrates the US median price of a single-family home over the past 39 years. Not only did housing prices increase at a rapid rate from 1991 to 2005, the rate at which housing prices increased increased. That brings us to today's chart which illustrates how housing prices have dropped 33% from the 2005 peak. In fact, a home buyer who bought the median priced single-family home at the 1979 peak has actually seen that home lose value (1.6% loss). Not an impressive performance considering that nearly three decades have passed. It is worth noting that the median priced home has moved back to the top of a trading range that existed from the late 1970s into the mid-1990s.
Source: Chart of the Day, http://www.chartoftheday.com/20090327.htm?T