The value of money
What is money from 2003 worth today?
Measured by U.S. consumer prices, a dollar from January 2003 takes 1.84 dollars to match today. Below, the standard amounts — and what they bought at the time.
2003 amounts, in today’s money
$1.00$1.84
$10.00$18.44
$100$184
$1,000$1,844
$10,000$18,436
$100,000$184,359
CPI-U, all items, not seasonally adjusted · January 2003 to August 2026 · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
What $10,000 bought in 2003
Consumer prices answer what money buys in a shop. These answer what it commanded of something real.
GoldJanuary 2003 · World Bank Commodity Markets (Pink Sheet)28.01 oz of gold
Median new home sale priceQ1 2003 · U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development0.05 median new homes
Median US household income2003 · U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey ASEC0.23 years of household income
Had $10,000 been invested in 2003 instead
A different question again: not what money could buy, but what it would have become. Equity figures include reinvested dividends.
Goldobservation August 2026 · World Bank Commodity Markets (Pink Sheet)$123,557
U.S. Large-Cap Equity Composite (total return)observation June 2026 · Robert J. Shiller, Yale University$127,948