Here's What 15 Things Cost 100 Years Ago (2024)

FAQs

What was the cost of everyday items 100 years ago? ›

Grocery Items

For instance, a dozen eggs cost 47 cents ($7.09 today), one pound of round steak cost 40 cents ($6.04 today), and three pounds of macaroni cost 25 cents ($3.77 today).

A dollar in 1923 is about $16.50 today. A first-class stamp is 2 stamps. The price is going to 63 cents this month. Gas costs a whopping 14 cents per gallon.

Groceries. In the 1920s, you'd pay about $0.39 per pound for chicken at the market, so your dollar would get you about two and a half pounds. Round steak was about the same price, at $0.40 per pound. Ham was slightly cheaper, at $0.25 per pound, so your dollar would get you four pounds.

1915. Today, the median home value in the U.S. is $177,600, according to the Zillow Home Value Index. In 1915, purchasing a house would have typically set you back $3,200, according to Census records. You were also taking more of a risk in buying a home then than you are today.

That's quite a bit above our current national average of $2.18. The average price for a 1/2 gal. of milk cost 33 cents back in the day. Today that'd be about $4.25, which is surprisingly more than our current average of $3.

First of all I found that houses in 1920 typically cost around $6500 not 1500. Price check on aisle 1920. Our homes today are also much larger than in that era — in the 1920s a home was 773–1223 Sq Feet. The average home today is 1763–1879 SF.

In the Roaring '20s, milk was 35¢ or so per gallon. But when the Great Depression hit in 1929, fewer people could afford milk and dairy farmers still had a lot of milk to sell. The price dropped from 35¢ per gallon to 26¢ per gallon. It doesn't sound like much, but 9¢ in 1930 is about $1.09 in today's dollars.

Was $20 a lot in 1920? ›

$20 in 1920 has a relative Per Capita GDP of $2,004.49 today. $20 in 1920 would be the same proportion of what the average household spent on Consumer Goods and Services as $741.16 is today.

Things that cost a dollar at the turn of the century included food, clothing, and many household items. One could even get a night of entertainment for a single buck.

Average Price of Rent

Before 1950, most U.S. families rented their homes. Renters in 1931 paid an average of $18 per month to their landlord in rent.

Rent prices for a single person's apartment in the 1920s averaged at about $60 per month. Yes… just $60 per month! According to the US Inflation Calculator, however, that amount of money would be equivalent to about $776 today, which is on the lower end of apartment rental prices nowadays.

In 1940, without adjusting for inflation, the average cost of a home in the United States was $2,938, according to the United States Census Bureau. The inflation-adjusted price in 2024 dollars would make that $64,372.84.

A frying pan at the department store cost 10 cents, a wash basket was 75 cents, an ironing board cost $2.75 and a hand washing machine was $12.95. To put those prices in perspective, something that cost $12.95 in 1921 would cost approximately $197.50 today, when inflation is taken into account.

The average income a hundred years ago was $1,033. A gallon of gas cost seven cents, and a loaf of bread five cents; a medium-priced home was $2,750.

According to the IRS, the average income in 1920 reported $3,269.40 per year. As of 2023, this amount translates to $49.341. 13. Most of the tax returns were filed by men who were employed by various employers, rather than self-employed.