For some perspective of the all-important US real estate market, Chart of the Day provided the graph below, illustrating the US median price of a single-family home over the past 40 years.

Following the parabolic increase from 1991 to 2005, prices dropped by 35% from the peak. “In fact, a home buyer who bought the median priced single-family home at the 1979 peak has actually seen that home lose 4.3% of its value. Not an impressive performance considering that over three decades have passed,” said the report.

Interestingly, the median-priced home has moved back to the top of a trading range that existed from the late-1970s to the mid-1990s. Moreover, based on recent data releases, the housing bottom has in all likelihood not yet been reached and house prices may very well be entering into a double dip.

Source: Chart of the Day, March 26, 2010.

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