Purchasing Power Calculator
What is $10,000 from January 2009 worth today?
The conventional answer
Measured by US Consumer Prices
$15,865
observation August 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What it bought then
GoldJanuary 2009 · World Bank Commodity Markets (Pink Sheet)11.64 oz
Median new home sale priceQ1 2009 · U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development0.05 homes
Median US household income2009 · U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey ASEC0.2 years
Had it been invested instead
A different question: not what money could buy, but what it would have become.
Goldobservation August 2026 · World Bank Commodity Markets (Pink Sheet)$51,350
U.S. Large-Cap Equity Composite (total return)observation June 2026 · Robert J. Shiller, Yale University$118,384