A Delaware Market Report Takes Me Back To My Chicago Childhood and $.15 Bread

I remember when I was a child in Chicago and we paid $35 a month rent. That sounds like a real bargain now, but the incomes in the U.S. in the 1950's averaged $2992. I used to take a walk down the alley and across the "prairie" (empty lot in Chicago-speak) with $.15 clutched in my hand to buy a loaf of Silvercup white bread. The average home price in Illinois was $8646 at the time.

Those with more mathematical ability than I have figured out how current New Castle County median home prices stand in relation to  median incomes in the following table.

The U.S. Census Bureau says Median home values adjusted for inflation nearly quadrupled over the 60-year period since the first housing census in 1940. The median value of single-family homes in the United States rose from $30,600 in 1940 to $119,600 in 2000, after adjusting for inflation.  This wild ride was a bronco waiting to be broken, as they say out West, and we are witnessing the end result (well, it's only the end if all the statisticians quit tomorrow).