Just scrolled through some housing data and it's wild how much the US real estate market has swung over the past 20 years. Most people think house prices are boring and stable, but the last two decades tell a completely different story.

So basically, home values went on a crazy ride. They jumped hard from 2003 to 2006, then crashed just as dramatically during the financial crisis. By 2012, prices had dropped about 33% from their peak. It was brutal for homeowners. But then something flipped - from 2012 onward, the recovery was insane. In just over a decade, average US home prices more than doubled, going from around $149k in 2012 to over $340k by early 2023.

What's interesting is how unevenly this played out across different cities. Miami and Atlanta saw crazy gains - Miami homes nearly quadrupled in value. But places like Detroit and Cleveland barely moved or even went backwards. Detroit prices actually fell from $74k to $64k over that same stretch.

If you zoom out and ignore the monthly noise, the long-term trend for US house prices is clearly up. Even with the boom-bust cycles, the overall direction has been solid. For most people buying homes as actual investments rather than flipping them, that's what really matters - the big picture over decades, not the short-term swings. The house price graph over the last 20 years in the USA basically shows recovery and growth, despite all the chaos in between.