In a CNBC interview that took place on July 1, 2005, Ben Bernanke said:
“We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis.”
This claim is coming from a scholar who specialized in the Great Depression. The Great Depression was an era of nationwide house price declines as represented in the red box below.
Reviewing the work of Roy Wenzlick, we can see that house price declines were not the only measurable metric that real estate suffered on a nationwide basis. Throughout the U.S., in more than 70 large cities we see that rents decreased, number of new dwellings decreased, office vacancies increased, farm land values decreased and real estate transfers decreased. Below data and charts based on the work of Roy Wenzlick demonstrating nationwide trends in real estate. Continue reading