U.S. Housing Market in 1968

In 1968, the U.S. housing market recorded existing-home sales averaged 1.55 million, new-construction sales of 490K, and a median existing-home price of $20,100.

Year over year, new-home sales rose 0.6%.

By the numbers — 1968: new-home sales 490K, existing-home sales 1.55M, median existing price $20,100.

Macroeconomic Context

1968 was a year of national crisis. Real GDP grew 4.9%, but CPI inflation jumped to 4.2%, the highest reading since the Korean War. The Tet Offensive in January shook public confidence in the Vietnam War. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April; Robert Kennedy in June. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August saw violent clashes between police and antiwar protesters. President Johnson, in March, declined to run for re-election. Richard Nixon won the November election. The federal funds rate averaged 5.7% as the Fed continued tightening. Congress passed the Fair Housing Act in April, prohibiting discrimination in housing sales, rentals, and financing — a long-overdue federal response to the redlining and racial covenants that had shaped American suburbia.

The Mortgage & Credit Market

30-year fixed mortgage rates climbed to roughly 6.8% by year-end. The Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 split Fannie Mae into a privately-owned but federally-chartered company (today's Fannie Mae) and Ginnie Mae, the Government National Mortgage Association, which would issue the first agency mortgage-backed security in 1970. The Act also expanded FHA Section 235 (interest subsidies for low-income buyers) and created Section 236 (rental subsidies). The post-war S&L-dominated mortgage system was beginning its slow transition to the modern securitized model.

Cycle Position

New-home sales held steady at 490,000. Crucially, 1968 is the first year of the NAR existing-home sales series — 1.55M existing transactions were tracked, establishing the federal benchmark we still use today. The median new home reached $24,700, and the median existing home was $20,100 — figures that would seem quaint by 2024 ($458K and $408K). Total tracked U.S. sales of new-plus-existing homes reached roughly 2.0 million for the first time.

The Year in Long View

Existing-home sales of 1.55M in 1968 represented 22% of the all-time annual peak (7.08M in 2005). New-home sales of 490K were 38% of the 2005 record (1,283K) and 160% of the absolute series low (306K in 2011). Combined U.S. home sales of 2.04M ran 24% of the 2005 all-time peak (8.36M total). Within the 1963s, the 1968 reading sat 0% above the decade average of 1.55M existing-home transactions per year. The median existing-home price of $20,100 translates to roughly $181,478 in 2024 dollars — about 44% of 2024's $408,000 record in real terms. Buyers in 1968 were not paying anything close to today's inflation-adjusted prices. Against the median U.S. household income of $7,743, the price-to-income ratio worked out to 2.6× — compared with 2024's all-time-high reading of 5.4×, which marks the most stretched affordability in the modern record. Mortgage rates pre-1971 are not part of the modern Freddie Mac PMMS series. Historical FHA and VA records put the prevailing 30-year fixed rate around 5.5–6.0% in the early 1960s, climbing toward 7–8% by 1971 — modest by every standard set after the 1973 oil shock and still well below the 2024 reading of 6.84%. Year-over-year, new-home sales rose 0.6%. Looking forward to 1969: existing sales would rise 0.0% to 1.55M.

Sources & Methodology

The 1968 figures on this page come from three federal data sources: the U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Construction (annual new single-family home sales), the National Association of Realtors Existing Home Sales report (annual existing-home transactions and median sale prices), and the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (annual average 30-year fixed mortgage rate). Recession bands are drawn from the National Bureau of Economic Research Business Cycle Dating Committee. Inflation adjustments use the Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI-U series, and price-to-income ratios reference the Census Bureau's annual median U.S. household income table. Mortgage rates for years before 1971 are not part of the Freddie Mac PMMS series; approximate values for the 1960s are sourced from FHA and VA loan documentation and are noted only where contextually useful.