Article · Prices
What got more expensive, and what got cheaper
From January 2000 to September 2026, the prices of everything Americans buy rose 81% on average, and average hourly pay rose 137%. The steepest climb among the 19 everyday things here: college tuition, +207%. The deepest fall: TVs, −98% — measured for the same quality, which is a big part of the story.
the steepest climb of the 19 things here; all consumer prices rose 81%, hourly pay 137%
the deepest fall: $100 worth in 2000 costs $1.84 now, for the same quality
since January 2000, PCE price index; by the better-known CPI +99%
College tuition, textbooks, car repair, child care, home insurance, rent, electricity and eating out
$13.74 → $32.63 an hour since January 2000; +20% by the CPI
The fan: 19 prices since January 2000
Each colored line is the price of one kind of thing, as a change since January 2000. The two uncolored lines are the yardsticks: all consumer prices, up 81%, and average hourly pay, up 137%. 8 of the 19 lines ended above pay: college tuition, textbooks, car repair, child care, home insurance, rent, electricity and eating out. 4 landed between prices and pay, and 7 rose less than prices. 5 of them got cheaper even before inflation: software (−68%), toys and games (−72%), computers (−93%), phones (−98%) and TVs (−98%).
The split is mostly goods against services. Durable goods — cars, furniture, appliances, electronics — fell 22% since 2000, while services rose 114%. Clothing and shoes cost about what they did in 2000 (+0.3%), while pay rose 137%.
All 19 as a table
| Thing | Since 2000 | A year | After inflation | A year, 1980–2000 | $100 of 2000, in work now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| College tuition | +207% | +4.3% | +69% | +8.2% | 9 h 24 min |
| Textbooks (educational books) | +183% | +4.0% | +56% | +6.9% | 8 h 40 min |
| Car repair and maintenance | +168% | +3.8% | +48% | +3.9% | 8 h 14 min |
| Child care (day care, preschool) | +165% | +3.7% | +46% | +4.4% | 8 h 7 min |
| Home and renters' insurance | +164% | +3.7% | +46% | +3.3% | 8 h 5 min |
| Rent | +148% | +3.5% | +37% | +4.5% | 7 h 37 min |
| Electricity | +141% | +3.4% | +33% | +3.1% | 7 h 24 min |
| Eating out (restaurants, takeout) | +139% | +3.3% | +32% | +3.7% | 7 h 20 min |
| Hospital services | +115% | +2.9% | +19% | +7.2% | 6 h 36 min |
| Airfares | +98% | +2.6% | +9.4% | +2.2% | 6 h 4 min |
| Groceries (food at home) | +96% | +2.6% | +8.2% | +3.0% | 6 h 1 min |
| Prescription drugs | +93% | +2.5% | +6.6% | +6.2% | 5 h 55 min |
| New cars and trucks | +27% | +0.9% | −30% | +2.6% | 3 h 53 min |
| Clothing and shoes | +0.3% | 0.0% | −45% | +0.7% | 3 h 4 min |
| Computer software | −68% | −4.2% | −82% | −18.3% | 59 min |
| Toys, games and hobbies | −72% | −4.7% | −85% | +0.6% | 51 min |
| Computers and tablets | −93% | −9.3% | −96% | −20.9% | 14 min |
| Phones | −98% | −13.2% | −99% | +5.1% | 4.2 min |
| TVs | −98% | −13.9% | −99% | −3.6% | 3.4 min |
| All consumer prices (PCE) | +81% | +2.3% | 0.0% | +3.4% | 5 h 33 min |
| Average hourly pay | +137% | +3.3% | +31% | +3.8% | — |
From January 2000 to September 2026. “After inflation”: the change over that of all consumer prices. Work: $100 of 2000 purchases at today's price, divided by the average hourly pay of September 2026 ($32.63); in 2000 it took 7 h 17 min.
$100 of 2000, priced today
Take $100 worth of each thing in January 2000 and price the same amount of it — the same courses, the same quality of TV — in September 2026. The $100 of tuition now costs $307; the $100 of TV, $1.84.
A tag above $181 got dearer than the average thing people buy; above $237, dearer than an hour of work. The switch “After inflation” above the fan reprices every tag in dollars of 2000.
In hours of work
Prices are only half the story: pay rose too. In January 2000 the average hourly pay of production and nonsupervisory workers — most of the private sector — was $13.74, so $100 took 7 h 17 min of work. In September 2026 pay was $32.63. Each row is the same $100 of 2000 purchases, earned at today's pay.
8 of the 19 take longer to earn than in 2000: college tuition, textbooks, car repair, child care, home insurance, rent, electricity and eating out. College tuition now takes 9 h 24 min. Everything else takes less time to earn than in 2000; TVs least of all: 3.4 min instead of 7 h 17 min.
- College9 h 24 min
- Textbooks8 h 40 min
- Car repair8 h 14 min
- Child care8 h 7 min
- Home insurance8 h 5 min
- Rent7 h 37 min
- Electricity7 h 24 min
- Eating out7 h 20 min
- Hospitals6 h 36 min
- Airfares6 h 4 min
- Groceries6 h 1 min
- Prescriptions5 h 55 min
- New cars3 h 53 min
- Clothing3 h 4 min
- Software59 min
- Toys51 min
- Computers14 min
- Phones4.2 min
- TVs3.4 min
Why services climb and gadgets fall
The fastest climbers are mostly people's time: teachers, nurses, child-care workers, mechanics, cooks. A preschool teacher can't look after many more children than in 2000, so when pay rises across the economy, the price of an hour of care rises with it. Economists call this Baumol's cost disease, after William Baumol, who noted in the 1960s that a string quartet needs as many players as it did in Beethoven's day. Services as a whole rose 114% since 2000; goods rose 30%.
Factory goods go the other way. Every year machines and chips make each TV, phone and laptop cheaper to build, and every year's model does more. The price indexes count both: TVs show −98% since 2000, phones −98%, computers −93%. Those numbers are for the same quality — not the drop on the shelf tag, which is smaller.
Before and after 2000
Most prices rose more slowly after 2000 than from 1980 to 2000. All consumer prices: +3.4% a year then, +2.3% since; hourly pay: +3.8%, then +3.3%. 14 of the 19 things here slowed down, and among the prices that kept rising, the biggest slowdown was hospital services: from +7.2% to +2.9% a year.
College tuition was the fastest climber in both eras: +8.2% a year then, +4.3% since. Only home insurance, electricity and airfares rose faster after 2000 than before. Toys and games and phones went from rising to falling. Software and computers kept getting cheaper, only more slowly.
The race: tuition against stocks, gold and homes
Did college tuition grow faster than the things people invest in? Start the clock in January 1980 and stop it in July 2026. The finish: stocks ×209, tuition ×14.6, homes ×7.76 and gold ×6.03. Tuition beat homes and gold, but not stocks.
From January 2000 the order changes: gold ×14.3, stocks ×8.42, homes ×3.37 and tuition ×3.02. Gold wins, and tuition comes fourth. The starting month matters as much as the runner: stocks began 2000 near the top of the dot-com boom.
Over the same stretch from 1980, hourly pay grew ×4.93 and all consumer prices ×3.53. A race of prices, not advice: tuition is a bill, not an asset — nobody can buy a year of college in 1980 and sell it today.
| Runner | From 1980 | From 1990 | From 2000 | From 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 with dividends | ×209 | ×45 | ×8.42 | ×8.93 |
| Gold | ×6.03 | ×9.93 | ×14.3 | ×3.64 |
| Home prices | ×7.76 | ×4.41 | ×3.37 | ×2.33 |
| College tuition | ×14.6 | ×5.82 | ×3.02 | ×1.57 |
| Hourly pay | ×4.93 | ×3.24 | ×2.36 | ×1.72 |
| All consumer prices | ×3.53 | ×2.24 | ×1.8 | ×1.46 |
Multiples from January of each year to Jul 2026, the latest month all six series have; the winner of each column is in bold. The race starts no earlier than 1980: until the 1970s the price of gold was held at about $35 an ounce.
Questions people ask
What has gone up the most in price?
Of the 19 everyday things on this page, college tuition rose the most from January 2000 to September 2026: +207%, or +4.3% a year, against +81% for all consumer prices. Next came textbooks (+183%) and car repair (+168%). In hours of work, $100 of 2000 college tuition now takes 9 h 24 min to earn instead of 7 h 17 min.
Why is college so expensive?
College tuition (BEA's price of higher education) rose 207% since January 2000 — +4.3% a year, against +2.3% for all consumer prices and +3.3% for hourly pay — and from 1980 to 2000 it rose even faster, +8.2% a year. One explanation economists often give: teaching is people's time and hasn't become much faster, so its price follows pay across the whole economy (Baumol's cost disease). The data show how fast, not why.
Why are TVs so cheap?
Because factories keep getting better at making them, and every year's set does more for the money. BEA's TV price index, adjusted for quality as BLS measures it, fell 98% from January 2000 to September 2026, −13.9% a year: what $100 bought in 2000 costs $1.84 for the same quality now. In hours of work, that $100 went from 7 h 17 min to 3.4 min.
What got cheaper since 2000?
Before inflation, 5 of the 19 things here: software (−68%), toys and games (−72%), computers (−93%), phones (−98%) and TVs (−98%). After inflation, 7 got cheaper: also new cars (+27%) and clothing and shoes (+0.3%), which rose less than all consumer prices (+81%). Durable goods as a whole fell 22% since January 2000.
Do wages keep up with prices?
On average, yes. From January 2000 to September 2026 average hourly pay rose 137% and all consumer prices 81% (99% by the CPI to Sep 2026), so an hour of work buys 31% more (20% more by the CPI). But 8 of the 19 things here rose more than pay: college tuition, textbooks, car repair, child care, home insurance, rent, electricity and eating out.
Go deeper
How the numbers are calculated
- Prices: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, “Table 2.4.4U. Price Indexes for Personal Consumption Expenditures by Type of Product”, monthly, seasonally adjusted (BEA, National Income and Product Accounts). Names are shortened: college tuition is “Higher education”, child care “Day care and nursery schools”, rent “Rental of tenant-occupied nonfarm housing”, eating out “Food services”, groceries “Food purchased for off-premises consumption”, home insurance “Household insurance premiums and premium supplements”, phones “Telephone and related communication equipment”. All consumer prices: the PCE price index, the measure the Federal Reserve uses for its inflation target.
- Quality: BEA builds most item indexes from components of the BLS consumer price index, which adjusts for changes in quality; for electronics such as TVs and computers BLS uses hedonic models. A falling index means the same quality costs less, not that the shelf price fell as much.
- Pay: average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees, private sector, seasonally adjusted (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, series CES0500000008, retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis).
- The CPI figures in the text: consumer price index for all urban consumers, all items, seasonally adjusted (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, via FRED).
- Hours of work: $100 times the change of a price since January 2000, divided by the average hourly pay of September 2026. Before tax and for the average worker: your own hours depend on your pay.
- Colors: red, rose more than average hourly pay since January 2000; orange, more than all consumer prices but not more than pay; green, not more than all consumer prices (cheaper after inflation).
- Yearly rates: compound change a year, January 1980 to January 2000 and January 2000 to Sep 2026.
- The race: how many times each price grew from January of the start year to Jul 2026, the latest month every series has. “After inflation” divides each by the PCE price index.
- S&P 500 with dividends reinvested: Robert J. Shiller's data (shillerdata.com), monthly averages of daily closes.
- Gold: World Bank, Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), monthly average, CC BY 4.0.
- Home prices: Robert J. Shiller, “US Home Prices 1890–Present” (the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index since 1975), as updated by the author (shillerdata.com).
- Notes of Shiller's data: Oct price is Oct 2nd close; Sept/Oct CPI estimated; Oct GS10 is Oct 2nd value.
- Information, not investment advice.
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Source: BigCapital.org — “What got more expensive, and what got cheaper”, https://bigcapital.org/articles/what-got-more-expensive/