patrick.net

Why don't you take the non-inflation adjusted numbers, correct them by the CPI & see if they match the inflation-adjusted numbers. Is this in the documentation?

Short answer: The official Case-Shiller index DOES NOT involve any form of inflation adjustment.

Long Answer: Read the methodology yourself in the document.

http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf/pdf/index/SPCS_MetroArea_HomePrices_Methodology.pdf

The reason for your impression may be that various people, including some newspapers and Shiller himself in his book, have published an inflation adjustment version of some older statistic of NATIONAL house prices. This graph IS NOT part of the published Case-Shiller index.

In general, indices are not inflation adjusted. Have you ever seen an inflated-adjusted stock market index or food price index? The whole point of an index is to show nominal values. That way one can compare them directly to other indices.

Thanks for clearing that up. I'm curious what is the inflation used when it was inflation adjusted anyway?

Also looking at the indices for Los Angeles, Washington DC, and florida,
similar indice values at 1990 and 2000 (LA, around 100.0), 1990 and 1999(washington DC), Kinda hard-to-believe numbers without inflation adjustments....