Real estate breakdown: what the numbers actually tell us

Take the Case-Shiller index and divide it by CPI—strip away all the monetary noise and what's left is the raw truth about what homes actually cost.

History shows it clearly. Over the past century, real home prices hovered around 0.5, barely moving. Year after year, this ratio stayed pretty flat. Boring stability, consistent gains that just tracked inflation, nothing more.

But lately? The math looks different. That long-term floor keeps getting challenged, pushing into territory we haven't seen in generations. When you factor out monetary expansion and look at pure purchasing power, the picture gets uncomfortable fast.

This matters because it reframes how we think about real estate as a store of value—especially when comparing it to other assets during macro shifts.