> Edit: To provide some clarity on the comments below highlighting that housing costs are included in CPI. Each country calculates inflation statistics to various methodologies. CPI in the US includes a rent equivalent value which is independent of the actual cost of purchasing a home.
Real monthly mortgage payments can be very misleading. It's quite different if one pays 15 year mortgage VS 30 year mortgage. Of course, for 30 yr monthly rate is lower but total costs are way higher.
The chart is assuming a 30-year fixed mortgage on whatever happened to be a median-priced house in a particular year with prevailing mortgage interest rates.
Real monthly mortgage payments have actually been going down relative to inflation: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/12/payments-for-new-house-h....