62 The Housing Almanac
Annual Series · 1963–2024 · Compiled in U.S. Dollars & Units
Updated 26 April 2026
About

An editorial archive of American homebuying.

The Housing Almanac is an editorially-designed reference for U.S. housing market data — annual sales, median prices, and 30-year fixed mortgage rates from 1963 to today, sourced exclusively from federal and federally-mandated data series.

The Almanac was built around three convictions:

  1. The historical record is one of the best frames for understanding the present moment. The 2024 housing market makes more sense once you've seen 1981, 2008, and 2021.
  2. Public data should look like it was made on purpose. Editorial typography, considered color, and an explicit narrative voice are not extras — they are the work.
  3. Every page should be browseable on its own. The dashboard splits into eight indexable views; the full data table is downloadable; every year and every notable cycle has its own archive page.

About the Editor

The Housing Almanac is edited by Amos Ductan, a data analyst and journalist with a focus on U.S. housing markets, macroeconomic cycles, and the intersection of federal policy and residential real estate. Amos has tracked U.S. housing data across multiple market cycles, from the post-2008 trough through the pandemic-era surge and the subsequent affordability crisis driven by the fastest mortgage-rate increase since the Volcker era. The Almanac grew from a conviction that the public datasets maintained by the Census Bureau, NAR, and Freddie Mac deserve better presentation — and that historical context is the most underused tool in understanding today's housing market.

Amos can be reached via LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/amosductan. For data corrections, write to corrections@housingalmanac.com.

What's covered

Data sources

Every number in the Almanac traces directly to a federal or federally-mandated source. New-home sales and median new-home prices come from the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Construction (SOC) and New Residential Sales release. Existing-home sales and median existing-home prices come from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Existing Home Sales report, a federally mandated series collected through state and local MLS boards. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate is the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), which has surveyed lenders weekly since 1971 and is the benchmark series used by the Federal Reserve, CFPB, and HUD. Recession shading follows NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee determinations.

All figures are annual. Mortgage rates are simple-averaged across the year's weekly PMMS observations. Sales figures are the calendar-year total or annual average as reported by the source. Median prices are nominal — not inflation-adjusted — unless explicitly stated otherwise. Where inflation adjustment is made, the Almanac uses the BLS Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U).

Editorial independence

The Housing Almanac is reader-supported. Some pages link to mortgage products from partners that may pay a commission if you apply or fund a loan. We never receive compensation for the rates or outcomes you see. We do not provide loan offers, pre-approvals, or rate quotes ourselves. Editorial decisions — including which year archives to publish, which cycles to explain, and how to characterize the current market — are entirely independent of any commercial relationship.

Corrections

If you spot a data error, a misattribution, or a chart that does not match the underlying source, write to corrections@housingalmanac.com. Corrections are made publicly and noted in the relevant page's footer.

The data files

The Almanac's master annual table is open-licensed under CC BY 4.0 via our data table page. The raw federal series themselves are public domain.