Silver vs. Real Estate: How Many Houses Could Your Ounces Buy?

When was the last time you priced your house in ounces? 

Probably never. Most people don’t think that way — and that’s exactly why Mike Maloney and Alan Hibbard just spent 25 minutes walking through the math. 

Because when you flip the script and measure real estate in gold and silver instead of dollars, something remarkable shows up: your purchasing power is climbing fast. And we’re not even close to the peak yet. 

In their latest deep dive, Mike and Alan lay out the case for what could be one of the biggest wealth transfers in modern history — and why the window is still open for those paying attention. 

The Charts Nobody’s Watching 

Most investors track home prices in dollars. Mike and Alan track them in ounces. 

Using data from Nick Laird at GoldChartsRUs.com, they showed how many ounces of gold (and silver) it takes to buy a median U.S. home. The trend is clear: homes are getting cheaper when priced in metals. 

Gold holders: Your purchasing power has roughly doubled. Mike thinks it could double again — meaning the same gold you hold today could buy twice as many homes if you time the cycle right. 

Silver holders: It currently takes about 10,000 ounces to buy a median home. In 1980, it took as little as 2,000 ounces. That’s a potential 5x gain in purchasing power. But Mike thinks the fundamentals this time around could push it to 10x — meaning 1,000 ounces per home. That’s two monster boxes. 

And here’s the kicker: the 1980 spike on these charts doesn’t tell the full story. Because the data is monthly, not daily, the peak purchasing power of silver in 1980 actually went much lower than what shows up on the chart. Mike estimates it probably hit 50 ounces or less per home at the absolute peak. 

The Affordability Crisis (and Why Only One Thing Can Give) 

Alan broke down a stunning stat from Fannie Mae: to return housing affordability to 2016-2019 levels, one of three things has to happen: 

1. Home prices fall 38% 

2. Household incomes rise 60% 

3. Mortgage rates drop to 2.35% 

Mike’s take? Only one of those is realistic — and it’s the first one. 

Incomes don’t rise during crises. They fall. Mortgage rates aren’t dropping to 2% — we’re probably entering a 40-year rising rate environment after a 40-year decline. That leaves prices. 

And Mike thinks the drop will be bigger than 38%. Much bigger. 

Why? Because this isn’t just a real estate bubble. It’s a synchronized bubble in real estate, stocks, and bonds — the biggest in history. When those pop together, the math gets wild. 

Why This Cycle Could Blow Past 1980 

Mike and Alan walked through why the fundamentals today are better for metals holders than they were in 1980: 

• Debt-to-GDP in 1980: 33%. Today: Over 120%. 

• Stock market in 1980: Undervalued, with P/E ratios of 7-10. Today: Hyper-extended and overvalued. 

• Real estate in 1980: Not in a bubble. Today: Median home prices track M2 money supply almost perfectly since 2020. 

• Silver supply in 1980: Massive government stockpiles. Today: Stockpiles are gone. Industrial demand is soaring. 

Translation: when gold and silver surge and real estate crashes at the same time, the purchasing power gains could be historic. 

Mike put it plainly: “If you sell a home, it’s more affordable to rent right now. So you rent while you’re invested in gold and silver, and then you buy once the price of homes has come down by 80 or 90% measured in silver — so you can buy five or 10 times more homes.” 

The Signal Everyone’s Missing 

Here’s the stat that caught Mike’s attention: 54% of Americans say there’s no mortgage rate at which they’d feel comfortable selling their home. 

That’s not confidence. That’s conditioning. 

Mike’s blunt about it: “The public is generally wrong. Now is the time to sell your house — like tomorrow.” 

He’s not giving financial advice. But he’s watching the data — and the data is flashing red. Renting is more affordable than buying by one of the widest gaps ever recorded. Home sales are headed for their worst year since 1995. And the Fed has lost control of mortgage rates, which rose after rate cuts. 

Something has to give. And when it does, Mike thinks the opportunity to trade real estate for metals — then back into more real estate later — could be generational. 

Watch the Full Breakdown 

Mike and Alan cover the full set of charts, historical comparisons, and purchasing power math in the complete video. If you’re holding metals, own real estate, or just want to understand where this cycle might be headed, it’s worth your time. 

Watch: Silver vs. Real Estate: Deep Dive Presentation →

People Also Ask 

How many ounces of silver does it take to buy a house? 

Currently, it takes about 10,000 ounces of silver to buy a median-priced U.S. home. However, in 1980 that number dropped to around 2,000 ounces at the peak of silver’s purchasing power — and Mike Maloney believes this cycle could push it even lower, potentially to 1,000 ounces or less. Watch Mike and Alan break down the full math in their latest video. 

Why are home prices falling when measured in gold and silver? 

Gold and silver are gaining purchasing power against real estate because precious metals tend to preserve wealth during periods of monetary expansion and asset bubbles. With real estate, stocks, and bonds all simultaneously overvalued while gold and silver enter a bull market cycle, the purchasing power gap is widening rapidly — a pattern similar to what happened in 1980, but with potentially stronger fundamentals this time. 

Is renting more affordable than buying a home right now? 

The gap between renting and buying has reached one of the widest levels ever recorded, with mortgage payments significantly outpacing rent-to-income ratios. This is largely due to elevated home prices, higher mortgage rates, and the fact that it currently costs about $800 more per month to buy with a new mortgage than to keep an existing one. Mike and Alan explore how this affordability crisis compares to past cycles in their full presentation. 

What needs to happen for housing to become affordable again? 

According to Fannie Mae, one of three things must occur: home prices need to fall 38%, household incomes need to rise 60%, or mortgage rates need to drop to 2.35%. Mike Maloney argues that only the first option is realistic, and he expects the actual drop to exceed 38% given that real estate, stocks, and bonds are all in historic bubbles simultaneously. 

Is silver a better investment than real estate right now? 

Mike Maloney believes we’re in a rare historical window where silver could gain 5-10x in purchasing power against real estate over the coming cycle. At $47/oz, silver is still historically cheap when you consider the fundamentals: depleted government stockpiles, rising industrial demand, synchronized bubbles in traditional assets, and charts showing homes are still getting cheaper when priced in ounces.