Just been looking back at US housing data over the past couple decades, and honestly the swings are wild. Most people think home values just steadily climb, but that's not what actually happened. From 2003 to 2006 prices went crazy, then 2008 hit and everything collapsed. We're talking about a 33% drop that basically wiped out all those gains. That whole 2003-2012 stretch was basically a wash if you were holding.

But here's where it gets interesting. After 2012 hit bottom, the market completely flipped. The average home value increase per year from 2012 onward has been pretty substantial. By mid-2023, we went from around $149k average to over $344k. That's roughly 131% growth in about 11 years. Some cities absolutely exploded too. Miami and Fort Lauderdale homes nearly quadrupled, Atlanta jumped from $108k to $384k. Meanwhile Detroit and Cleveland barely budged or actually went down.

The real takeaway? If you zoom out and ignore all the noise, the long-term trend for housing is solid upward. Yes, we had that brutal crash and then that crazy 2020-2022 spike, but the average home value increase per year over the full 20-year span still came out pretty strong. For most people holding property long-term, that's what matters.