Interactive · Debasement Basement Tools
How many years of work does it take to buy a house?
The median new US house costs about 6.1 years of the average worker’s pay today, up from 3.3 years in 1970. That is 12,685 hours at the average hourly wage, against 6,904 then. Priced in gold, the same house went the other way: from 652 ounces in 1970 to about 102 today.
US data: the median price of new US houses and the average US hourly wage, in US dollars. Outside the US? The scrap gold, junk silver, premium and gold-silver ratio calculators show prices in your own currency.
Years of work to buy a house calculator
Leave it blank to use the national average for production and nonsupervisory workers. Before tax, full time is 2,080 hours a year.
A new house, 1970 against today
In wages, a house costs 1.8 times as much work as it did in 1970. In gold, it costs 16% as much.
1970
3.3 yrs
of work · $23,475
652 oz
of gold
—
a month: mortgage rates in this series start in 1971
Today
6.1 yrs
of work · $409,600
102 oz
of gold
$2,056
a month at 6.43%: 37% of average pay
In 1970 the average worker earned $3.40 an hour, and a new house took 6,904 hours to pay for. Today the wage is $32.29 and the house takes 12,685. Gold in 1970 was still pinned by law at about $36 an ounce, so that comparison flatters gold; try 1980 or 2011 for a tougher one. Same three bedrooms, almost twice the shifts. Nobody got a second kitchen out of it.
How this is worked out
- 1. House price: the median sales price of new houses sold in the US (Census Bureau and HUD, series MSPUS), averaged over each year’s quarters.
- 2. Pay: average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees, total private (BLS, series AHETPI), averaged over each year’s months. That is about four in five private-sector workers, and it runs back to 1964.
- 3. Hours of work = price ÷ hourly wage. Years of work = hours ÷ 2,080, a full-time year. Before tax, before a down payment, before interest: the gross price of the house measured in labor.
- 4. Ounces of gold = price ÷ that year’s average gold price; today, the spot price shown on the card.
- 5. Monthly payment: a 30-year fixed mortgage on 80% of the price (20% down) at that year’s average rate from Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, before taxes and insurance, shown against a month of full-time pay at the average wage. The survey begins in 1971.
Retrieved from FRED on October 4, 2026. This year is partial: house prices to the second quarter, wages to September. Every calculation runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Sources: FRED series MSPUS (house prices), AHETPI (wages) and MORTGAGE30US (mortgage rates); gold annual averages from metalcharts.org, and today’s gold from gold-api.com, with a stored fallback of $3,996.90 an ounce (October 24, 2026). Limits: a median new house, not the house you would buy or where; one national wage; no down payment saving time, taxes or insurance. Data updated October 2026.
Worked examples
Today means a median new house of $409,600 (2026 so far), the average wage of $32.29 an hour and gold at $3,996.90 an ounce (October 24, 2026): 6.1 years of work, or 102 ounces.
- 1980: a $64,750 house took 4.5 years at $6.85 an hour, or 105 ounces of gold. The monthly payment was $603 at 13.74%, 51% of average pay; today it is $2,056 at 6.43%, 37%.
- 2001: a $173,100 house took 5.7 years of work, or 639 ounces of gold. Gold was near its low that year, which flatters the gold column.
- 2011: a $224,900 house took 5.6 years of work, or 143 ounces of gold, with gold near a peak.
- At $25 an hour today’s median new house takes 16,384 hours, or 7.9 years of full-time work.
Years of work and ounces of gold, every five years
| Year | New house | Hourly wage | Years of work | Ounces of gold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | $20,125 | $2.63 | 3.7 | 575 |
| 1970 | $23,475 | $3.40 | 3.3 | 652 |
| 1975 | $39,275 | $4.74 | 4.0 | 244 |
| 1980 | $64,750 | $6.85 | 4.5 | 105 |
| 1985 | $84,275 | $8.73 | 4.6 | 266 |
| 1990 | $122,300 | $10.20 | 5.8 | 319 |
| 1995 | $133,475 | $11.65 | 5.5 | 348 |
| 2000 | $167,550 | $14.01 | 5.7 | 601 |
| 2005 | $236,550 | $16.11 | 7.1 | 533 |
| 2010 | $222,700 | $19.05 | 5.6 | 182 |
| 2015 | $294,150 | $21.03 | 6.7 | 254 |
| 2020 | $328,150 | $24.68 | 6.4 | 185 |
| 2025 | $415,400 | $31.34 | 6.4 | 121 |
| 2026 (so far) | $409,600 | $32.29 | 6.1 | 102 |
Median new-house price, average hourly wage, years of full-time work, and ounces of gold at that year’s average price. The last row is this year so far.
A house is the most expensive thing most people ever buy with their time
Prices in dollars are a poor guide across decades, because the dollar itself keeps shrinking. A $23,475 house in 1970 sounds like a bargain until you remember that $3.40 was a decent hourly wage. The honest unit is time: how many hours does somebody earning an ordinary wage have to work to pay for the thing?
By that measure the median new house has gone from a little over three years of full-time pay to about six. The rise was not smooth. It climbed through the 1970s, eased in the 1990s, ran hot into 2006, dipped with the housing bust, and jumped again after 2020, when a new house went from about six and a half years of work to seven and a half in two years. Change the year on the calculator and you can watch each of those stretches.
These are gross figures: they ignore tax, the down payment and the interest on a mortgage, which on a thirty-year loan can add more than the house itself. Nobody pays cash out of one year’s wages. The point is the ratio, and the ratio has nearly doubled.
What the mortgage rate does to it
Almost nobody pays for a house out of savings, so the price is only half the story. The other half is the interest rate, and it has swung far more than prices or wages. Put 20% down on the median new house and borrow the rest for thirty years at that year’s average rate, and the monthly payment, against a month of average pay, looks like this:
| Year | Rate | Payment a month | Month of average pay | Share of pay |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 7.54% | $142 | $629 | 23% |
| 1981 | 16.64% | $770 | $1,288 | 60% |
| 1990 | 10.13% | $868 | $1,768 | 49% |
| 2000 | 8.05% | $988 | $2,428 | 41% |
| 2012 | 3.66% | $896 | $3,418 | 26% |
| 2021 | 2.96% | $1,285 | $4,491 | 29% |
| 2022 | 5.34% | $1,932 | $4,777 | 40% |
| 2025 | 6.60% | $2,122 | $5,432 | 39% |
| 2026 (so far) | 6.43% | $2,056 | $5,597 | 37% |
By this measure the worst year was not recent. In 1981, at a 16.64% average rate, the payment on a new house took about 60% of an average worker’s gross pay. The cheapest years since the early 1970s came between 2009 and 2021, when rates of roughly 3% to 5% kept the payment between about 26% and 34% of pay despite rising prices. Since 2022 it has jumped back to around 40%, because prices stayed high while rates more than doubled.
These are rough, national figures: no property tax, insurance or mortgage insurance, and one average wage for a household that may have two. The latest weekly rate was 7.28% on October 1, 2026, above this year’s 6.43% average. The calculator above shows the payment for any year since 1971.
Why the gold line goes the other way
Measured in gold, the median new house cost hundreds of ounces in the 1960s and around 2001, and under a hundred today. That is not because houses became cheap. It is because gold’s dollar price rose faster than house prices did, so an ounce buys more house than it used to.
Here is the bear case for my own position, stated before anyone else can: the gold figure swings wildly with the starting year. Before 1971 the dollar price of gold was fixed by law, so the 1960s comparison flatters gold. Pick 1980 or 2011, when gold was expensive, and the house looks much less dramatic in ounces. The wage measure moves slowly and is the better guide to everyday life; the gold measure is the better guide to what happened to the dollar. Read them together.
What this leaves out
New houses only: existing homes are a different series and usually cost less. New houses have also grown larger over the decades, so part of the rise buys more house. The wage is a national average, which hides large differences between places and jobs; type your own pay into the calculator to see your own number. And the latest year is partial, so its row will move when the full year is published. Related: your salary then and now, in dollars and gold, and what inflation is costing your savings.
Questions people actually ask
How many years of work does it take to buy a house?
About 6.1 years of full-time pay for the median new US house in 2026, at the average hourly wage of production and nonsupervisory workers. In 1970 it took about 3.3 years. These are gross figures, before tax, down payment and mortgage interest.
How many hours does it take to buy a house?
About 12,700 hours of work at the average hourly wage of $32.29, for a median new house priced around $409,600 in 2026. In 1970 the same calculation gave about 6,900 hours: a $23,475 house at $3.40 an hour.
Are houses less affordable than in the 1970s?
Measured in working hours, yes. The median new house cost about 3.3 years of average pay in 1970 and about 6.1 years in 2026. Mortgage rates, house sizes and local prices all vary, so the national ratio is a guide rather than a verdict on any one market.
How much gold does it take to buy a house?
About 102 troy ounces for the median new US house at a gold price of $3,997 an ounce. In 1970 it took about 652 ounces, and in 2001 about 639, because gold was much cheaper then relative to houses.
Why do houses look cheaper in gold?
Because the dollar price of gold has risen faster than house prices since 1971. An ounce of gold buys more house than it did, even though a house costs more hours of work. The result depends heavily on the starting year, since gold’s price swings far more than wages.
What house price does this use?
The median sales price of new houses sold in the United States, published by the Census Bureau and HUD as series MSPUS and averaged here to calendar years. Existing homes are a separate series and are not included.
What wage does this use?
Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees in the private sector, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as series AHETPI. It covers roughly four in five private-sector workers and runs back to 1964.
What share of income does a mortgage payment take?
On the median new US house with 20% down, a 30-year mortgage at 2026’s average rate of 6.43% costs about $2,056 a month, around 37% of a month’s gross pay at the average hourly wage. In 1981, at 16.64%, it was about 60%; in 2021, at 2.96%, about 29%.
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