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Mine's a bitch. I pay 1900 for a 2 bedroom in San Diego. It has in unit laundry, 2 full baths and a dishwasher. All crap I didn't have a hope to have in the SF Bay Area.

It's still a bitch.

just_dregalicious says

Mine's a bitch. I pay 1900 for a 2 bedroom in San Diego. It has in unit laundry, 2 full baths and a dishwasher. All crap I didn't have a hope to have in the SF Bay Area.

It's still a bitch.

It sure is.

I recall once reading an article which pointed out that the nature of real estate has changed over the decades, which makes comparative analysis of past vs present prices difficult. For example, the typical new SFH built today is much larger than it was 30 years ago, and the trend keeps going bigger and bigger. This makes many graphs misleading when they compare housing costs, because while prices do increase, some portion of that increase is due to getting a bigger and/or better house.

So, a graph of "median rent per sq/ft" might be nice to look at along side a "median rent" chart, depending on your purposes.

I'm not sure how the size or nature of typical rentals such as apartments has changed. I have read stuff that suggests today's young people seem to demonstrate a preference towards urban locations, and housing costs in urban locations should be more expensive, I'd imagine, so I wouldn't be surprised if "median rent" was skewed upwards somewhat due to a corresponding increase in % of housing being urban vs suburban. Hell, apartments may have gotten smaller in recent years.

Just wanted to bring these points up so they can be thought about, because a 0.8% difference vs inflation is a small margin, and so small changes like this can easily throw you off.

Hircus says

So, a graph of "median rent per sq/ft" might be nice to look at along side a "median rent" chart, depending on your purposes.

Yes, that is true as residential square foot per occupant or dweller has steadily increased.

I also see a lot of "luxury condos" going up with fake wood vinyl floors, quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, gym/pool/club house, etc. They are nothing like the no-frills condos I remember back in the 1980s.

The same goes with comparing cars then to cars now if you were to examine current features like mileage, range, bluetooth/satellite radio, comfort, etc.

I posted what I could find, and here is what I have.
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