The house my parents owned when I was born recently sold for $4000 [1]. I’m not omitting a zero or two. That’s about the price of a used 2001 Honda Civic with 150,000 miles — maybe the Honda is worth a bit more. My parents sold the house for $12,000 (three zeros) in the ’70s. Times have been tough for as long as I can remember my hometown of Jamestown (about 60 miles from Buffalo), NY, but I still found this surprising. This is especially astonishing if your are faced with increasing rent and real estate prices in metropolitan areas like NYC, Seattle, and San Francisco.