US Economy

Three long-run charts of the American economy: what a house costs, how fast prices are rising, and how the stock market has done. Each is interactive: hover or tap to read off any year, with notes on the moments that mattered.

• House prices

  The median sale price of a US home since 1975, through the mid-2000s bubble, the subprime crash, and the pandemic boom past $450,000.

• Inflation

  Consumer price inflation since 1960: the 1970s oil shocks, the Volcker squeeze, decades of calm, and the 2022 spike to a 40-year high.

• Stock indices

  The S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq Composite on one chart, since 1960 (the Nasdaq from 1971), through every boom, bust and record close, and how the three differ.