That’s an exaggeration. The median price for new construction in 1980 was $64,600. [1] As for existing housing stock, the median home value in 1980 was $47,200. [2] As housing prices are heavily right skewed, the prices of cheap housing is far closer to the median than the price of expensive housing. Based on a cursory overview of some charts, it seems like the bottom 20% of houses are no more that 30% cheaper than the median, putting them in the $30k range.
That’s an exaggeration. The median price for new construction in 1980 was $64,600. [1] As for existing housing stock, the median home value in 1980 was $47,200. [2] As housing prices are heavily right skewed, the prices of cheap housing is far closer to the median than the price of expensive housing. Based on a cursory overview of some charts, it seems like the bottom 20% of houses are no more that 30% cheaper than the median, putting them in the $30k range.
We are talking Kansas City. Not a general area like the Midwest.
My parents home was 20k in 1975. My grandparents homes were about 10k in the same time frame.
Kansas City was very cheap at the time. Yes there were more expensive homes but in the 1980’s working class families didn’t have McMansions.
1975 =/= 1980. Looks like housing went up 64% in those 5 years from the data I already linked.
The data isn’t relevant since it’s not for the area defined. We are talking about a specific geographic area. Kansas City proper.
Due to the white flight of the 70’s housing prices declined or only grew fractionally.
When my grandparents died, each of their homes only sold under 20k in the late 90’s early 20’s.
Comparing the price of home across the Midwest has nothing to do with the price in East Kansas City or SE where I went to school
Data instead of anecdotes?
It is hard to find exact numbers but if we use Missouri as a whole, the average home price in 1980 was 36K https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/tables/time-series/coh-values/values-unadj.txt
15K per student is a lot of money in 1980 dollars.