I thought the same thing. This is by no means really trustworthy sources, just top Google results, but still: According to http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/50se

I thought the same thing. This is by no means really trustworthy sources, just top Google results, but still: According to http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/50selectrical.html http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/50selectrical.html a washer and dryer set cost around 500 USD (in 1953 USD) which according to http://www.usinflationcalculator.com http://www.usinflationcalculator.com would be around 4500 USD in 2017 USD. Since I'm not from the US I don't know what's popular there, but if I look at http://www.homedepot.com/b/Featured-Products-Popular-Laundry-Pairs http://www.homedepot.com/b/Featured-Products-Popular-Laundry... it seems like they go between 500 and 1000 USD. So between 4.5 to 9 times cheaper than in 1953.