Some time last year I remember stumbling over this video of US house prices (adjusted for inflation) since 1890 presented as a rollercoaster ride. Watch it, it brings out the extent of the recent boom very well.

This is the source data in a graph:

Patrick points out that the y axis doesn’t start at zero, making things look worse than they are, but it’s an index starting at 100 (the baseline is emboldened), not zero.

Anyhow, here’s the ‘proper’ chart as Patrick mocked it together:

Still pretty worrying.