Here’s where the experts agree…

• “The prices of houses seem to have reached a plateau, and there is reasonable expectancy that prices will decline.” ( Time, December 1, 1947)
• “Houses cost too much for the mass market. Today’s average price is around $8,000—out of reach for two-thirds of all buyers.” (Science Digest, April, 1948)
• “If you bought your house since the War…you have made your deal at the top of the market… The days when you couldn’t lose on a home purchase are no longer with us.” (House Beautiful, November, 1948)
• “The goal of owning a home seems to be getting beyond the reach of more and more Americans. The typical new house today costs $28,000.” (Business Week, September 4, 1969)
• “Be suspicious of the ‘common wisdom’ that tells you to ‘Buy now…because continuing inflation will force home prices and rents higher and higher.’” (NEA Journal, December,1970)
• “The median price of a home today is approaching $50,000….Housing experts predict that in the future price rises won’t be that great.” (Nations Business, June, 1977)
• “The era of easy profits in real estate may be drawing to a close.” (Money, January, 1981)
• “In California… for example, it is not unusual to find families of average means buying $100,000 houses…. I’m confident prices have passed their peak.” (John Wesley English and Gray Emerson Cardiff, The Coming Real Estate Crash, 1980)
• “The golden-age of risk-free run-ups in home prices is gone.” (Money, March 1985)
• “If you’re looking to buy, be careful. Rising home values are not a sure thing anymore.” (Miami Herald, October 25, 1985)
• “Most economists agree… [a home] will become little more than a roof and a tax deduction, certainly not the lucrative investment it was through much of the 1980s.” (Money, 1986)
• “We’re starting to go back to the time when you bought a home not for its potential money-making abilities, but rather as a nesting spot.” (Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1993)
• “Financial planners agree that houses will continue to be a poor investment.” (Kiplinger’s Personal Financial Magazine, November 1993)
• “A home is where the bad investment is.” (San Francisco Examiner, November 17, 1996)
• “Your house is a roof over your head. It is not an investment.” (Everything You Know About Money Is Wrong, 2000)