You realize that somebody who bought in 1940 or earlier is over 100 years old now, right? (assuming becoming a homeowner at age 25). Not a significant demogra

You realize that somebody who bought in 1940 or earlier is over 100 years old now, right? (assuming becoming a homeowner at age 25). Not a significant demographic. Beyond that, those numbers are fudged and do not reflect the changing value of the dollar. $3,537 in 1940 is $59,711 in 2015 dollars[0] (or $43,382 in 2000 dollars[0]), so your "two orders of magnitude" claim falls to a mere factor of less than 5 times, or < 5% of the "two orders of magnitude" claim. And again, that isn't even a level comparison given that housing construction costs are far higher (well beyond the rate of inflation) due to more features, stricter building codes, modern appliances, permits, ... [0] http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=3527&year1=1940&year2=2000 http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=3527&year1=1940...