There is one number every Georgia homeowner should know before they congratulate themselves on a 'gain' since 1990, and it is not a price. It is a multiplier: 2.53.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator, $100,000 in 1990 has the purchasing power of roughly $252,650 in 2026 dollars — cumulative inflation of 152.65%, or about 2.61% per year. Put plainly: any house that has not at least 2.53x'd in nominal price since 1990 has lost real purchasing power. Period. Anything above 2.53x is real gain. Anything below it is the dollar shrinking, not the asset growing.
That math is uncomfortable in Georgia, because most of the long-tenured equity in this state looks bigger on paper than it is in groceries, gas, and property taxes.
What Realtor.com actually said (and what it didn't)
A widely circulated September 2025 Realtor.com analysis by senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones reported that median U.S. listing prices rose just 0.5% year-over-year in July 2025 while CPI rose 2.7% — the fourth consecutive month of real housing-wealth erosion at the national level. As Jones put it: 'Your house may still be worth more dollars than before, but those dollars buy less in the broader economy.' CNBC's October 2025 follow-up confirmed the trend continued.
That study is a current-year comparison, not a 50-metro 1990 baseline. It is worth separating the two. The annual deltas Realtor.com tracked: 2022 prices +13.7% vs. inflation +8% (real gain). 2023 +2.3% vs. +4.1% (real loss). 2024 -0.4% vs. +2.9% (real loss). 2025 year-to-date -0.3% prices. The recent slide is real and ongoing — but it is not the whole 35-year story.
The Atlanta data caveat the popular charts skip
If you have read the canonical 1990-baseline metro studies, you may have noticed Atlanta is missing. That is not editorial choice. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Atlanta index only begins in January 1991 (record low of 69.05 in March 1991), so any clean 1990 comparison using Case-Shiller mathematically excludes Atlanta, Dallas, and Detroit.
For a real 1990-to-today look at Georgia, the correct deep-history series is the FHFA All-Transactions House Price Index, which covers the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta MSA from Q4 1975 forward and Savannah from 1984 forward. That is the dataset the worked examples below rely on, alongside 1990 Census median home values and current Zillow ZHVI figures.
Worked example: a 1990 Atlanta home
1990 Atlanta metro median: roughly $80,000 to $90,000 (the 1990 Census put Georgia's statewide median at $70,700, with Atlanta running modestly above). Today's Atlanta ZHVI is approximately $379,911, down 2.3% year-over-year.
Take a midpoint $85,000 purchase in 1990.
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Nominal multiple: $379,911 ÷ $85,000 ≈ 4.5x. Sounds spectacular.
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Inflation-adjusted basis: $85,000 × 2.53 ≈ $215,000 — that is what you would need today just to break even in real terms.
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Real appreciation: $379,911 − $215,000 ≈ $165,000 in 2026 dollars. The 'real' multiple is closer to 1.8x, not 4.5x.
So the bumper-sticker gain of '$85K turned into $380K — almost $300K profit!' is really closer to a $165,000 real gain, before any selling costs. That is still a solid 35-year inflation hedge. It is not, however, the wealth-creation event most owners describe at dinner parties.
Worked example: Savannah
Savannah is currently around $335,719 (down 0.5% YoY). The 1990 base was lower than Atlanta's, but so was the growth rate. The implied real appreciation since 1990 lands closer to 1.3x–1.5x. The port and tourism economy held up better than inland metros, but the long-run real gain is meaningfully smaller than Atlanta's.
Worked example: Macon, Columbus, Augusta
This is where the deflation math gets uncomfortable. Lower 1990 starting prices combined with slower long-run nominal appreciation mean several pockets of these metros are at or near real break-even since 1990 — meaning a 1990 buyer is sitting on a home whose dollar value rose, but whose purchasing-power value barely budged.
Recent figures from the Georgia Association of REALTORS® show why these markets are only just now beginning to recover real ground: 2025 median price gains of +10.3% in Columbus and +5.6% in Macon, against a flat statewide median of about $360,000. The state went from $70,700 in 1990 to about $360,000 in 2025 — a 5.1x nominal multiple, or roughly 2.0x real after CPI. A doubling of true purchasing power across 35 years for the typical Georgia home. Real, but modest.
The seller's worksheet
Before you call a number a profit, run it through this:
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Nominal sale price (what the closing statement shows).
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Minus 2.53 × your 1990 cost basis (real break-even in 2026 dollars; adjust the multiplier if you bought later).
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Minus 7–9% transaction costs — agent commissions, Georgia transfer tax, title, closing fees.
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Minus 35 years of property taxes, insurance, and maintenance (the working rule of thumb is 1–2% of value per year for upkeep alone).
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Equals real profit — and that number is what you should compare against what a 1990 down payment would have done in equities or TIPS.
For the Atlanta example above, after 7–9% in selling costs alone ($27,000–$34,000) the real gain drops from roughly $165,000 toward $130,000-ish — before property taxes and maintenance. The 1980 stagflation period set a precedent for this kind of pattern: that year saw home prices rise 6% against CPI of 13.5%, a real loss of nearly 7% in one year.
The refinancer's trap
HELOC and cash-out refinance underwriting uses nominal appraised value. That means a retiree in Macon or Columbus can borrow against equity that is partly phantom — trading real future income (the interest payments are in tomorrow's harder dollars) for collateral that is largely inflation-puffed, not productivity-grown.
Mortgage rates compress the picture further. The 30-year fixed averaged roughly 9.8% in 1990 versus 6–7% in 2025–2026. A monthly-payment-adjusted view of 'real cost' makes the apparent home-price appreciation look smaller still, because today's buyers are financing a much larger price at a much lower rate — different math entirely from what 1990 owners locked in.
The retiree decision: cash out or age in place
If inflation has eroded the equity inside the house, why not pull it out? Because the house is also paying you. Imputed rent — the rent you are not paying to a landlord — is itself an inflation hedge that ratchets up with the broader cost of housing. The honest comparison is: would the equity, redeployed at realistic real returns from TIPS or a diversified equity portfolio, beat the combination of continued imputed rent plus modest appreciation? Sometimes yes, often no, and the answer depends heavily on age, health, property taxes, and how much of the home's value is truly real versus phantom.
The framework, not the panic
Georgia housing has been a fine inflation hedge over 35 years. Atlanta's real appreciation of roughly 1.7–1.9x and the state's roughly 2.0x are genuine wins. But the magnitude of the win is roughly half what most closing statements suggest, and in secondary metros it is closer to a draw. Sellers, refinancers, and retirees who plan around the 2.53x rule — rather than the nominal sticker — will make better decisions than those who don't.
Related reading
Sources
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Fox Business — Home equity erosion hits homeowners as inflation outpaces price gains (Sept 8, 2025)
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FRED / FHFA — All-Transactions HPI, Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta MSA
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Macrotrends — Atlanta Case-Shiller Home Price Index, 1991–2025
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U.S. Census Bureau — Median Home Values: Unadjusted, 1940–2000
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Georgia Association of REALTORS® — Georgia Housing Market Holds Steady in 2025
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Real Estate Decoded — The Shocking Truth About House Prices Since 1990
