Fuck, even the gold isn't safe.

And let‘s not forget that the average home in 1920 was way more modest than today‘s average home.

The bar in the picture says it's a kilo which is $65, 344. While I could agree with OP that 10 kilos would give you an average house in higher priced areas like new York or LA, it would definitely buy you several nice houses in 1920.

I'm seeing $412K as the average price of a home in 2023, not $495K. And gold was $2,135 in 2023. The price in gold is still higher in 2023, though about 193 bars for a home.

Couple other notes, more related to the post.

1920 is an oddly good year to use. It's just after WWI. Industrialization and modernization are taking off across the US. Worker's rights are beginning to take hold and working class people are now able to afford homes. It's before the Roaring 20s, so you're not going to get the actual details obscured with the market rush and subsequent depression.

There is a couple important downsides though...

Firstly, mortgages didn't really exist back then. I mean, they did, but they were horrific. You'd have to go to an insurance company because banks wouldn't offer them. The terms would give the insurance company full ownership of the property. If you were lucky, it would be a balloon loan - pay only the interest during the 5-10 year term and then pay the entire balance at the end. If you were less lucky, it was a lifelong contract where you only paid the interest plus fees every month.

There was an alternative but most people didn't have access to it: membership in a Savings and Loan corporation, also known as Building and Loan or thrifts. You'd join as a member and agree to buy X shares every month. If you give a notice (30-90 days usually), you would be allowed to cash out the shares plus interest earned for their actual value. When you wanted to buy a home, you would be allowed to use your shares as collateral. Each monthly payment would pay for the interest and a certain number of shares. Once you had enough shares, you would redeem them to pay off the loan. A bit complicated, but S&Ls were fantastic for the common person. They were owned by the members of your community and all loans went to support said community.

Secondly, kind of related to the first point, there were no 30 year mortgages. Home prices are virtually tied to the monthly payment and a thirty year mortgage allows for lower monthly payments. Prices might get out of line a bit, such as right now, if people believe that interest rates will drop and they can refinance later. Personally, I don't think we'll see any drops for at least two years and, even then, we won't see anything like the 2020-2021 rates unless we experience an economic catastrophe like 2008. You want higher rates when the macro environment is strong and lower rates when it's weak. Cheap debt in a good economy is basically a handout to the rich - makes you wonder why Trump pushed the Fed to keep them low back in 2018-2019...

Just ignore that general index funds have higher ROI.

Gold prices must be high

Well, it's working.

This, precious metals are a hedge against hyper inflation. Not an investment.

Not only that, but SP500 pays dividends practically every year, whereas gold costs money to store securely. $15M in SP500 would have netting something around $300k last year in dividends alone.

My last house I bought in 2012 for 545k CAD. Sold it 10 years later for 1.3 million. Agree. We are collectively fucked.

If you include maintenance and taxes, it actually sold for less than the same amount of money invested in an index fund.

The bar in the picture is one kilogram or about $65,000 US dollars. Ten bars would buy a very nice house in my area.

10 of these will buy you a house in 20230

Which one? Gold was $20.67 per Troy ounce in 1920, that’s about $664.55 per kilo. 10 kilos about $6,645.55 I’m believing the first search result https://www.countryliving.com/life/g33398396/what-things-cost-100-years-ago/ says that matches up. Gold is about $64,900 per kilo today so $649,000 for 10 bars, that’s a low cost of living middle class place or HCOL very small house that needs renovation. I could see you meaning these days and houses in some areas are in the $6 million range, guess they should be location specific.

At the same time, it picks and chooses its dates. Gold has been volatile, with the price oscillating between $2,100 USD in 1980, $470 USD in 2001, and back up to $2,200 USD in 2011.

This is always my question. Like you see these movies about gold and diamond heists, but then.... Wtf do you do with them? Who are you selling this shit to at retail value, or anywhere close to it?

I feel like if somone handed me a bag of diamonds right now I'd have no idea wtf to do with them.