Be careful with what comes out of those calculations. It may be worse than meaningless. First off, 1997 prices were so depressed in SoCal, we may not see those prices (adjusted for inflation) ever again. Don’t think 1997 was “fair”. 1997 was “dirt cheap”. Second, long term house prices don’t quite track headline inflation data (government or otherwise). They track the shelter component of the CPI, which, depending on location, could be way off the headline CPI number. After all, housing and rental prices in San Diego and Buffalo were not that much different 50 years ago, but they are now. That’s 50 years of different inflation rates between these two cities. Using US headline CPI for either case would be meaningless.
