$100 in 1926 is worth $96.61 in 1928,
because prices declined 3.4% over that period, an average of
1.71% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$96.61
in 1928
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-3.4%
Average inflation rate
-1.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$96.61
Price difference ($100 base)
-$3.39
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1928
17.1
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1928
-1.72%
$100 in 1926 → 1928
$96.61
$100 in 1928 → 1926
$104
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1928
Between 1926 and 1928, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 17.1.
Cumulatively, prices declined 3.4%, which works out to an average of
-1.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$1.04 buys in 1928: the 1926 dollar
gained 3.5% in purchasing power over
these 2 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.1% in 1926, a third straight year of mild inflation
and part of the price stability that defined the middle of the decade.
Florida’s real estate boom, which had peaked the previous year on
speculative buying of undeveloped land, ended abruptly that September when
the Great Miami Hurricane made landfall near the city, killing hundreds and
wrecking the market for land whose value had rested on continued
speculation rather than anything underneath it. In Detroit, Henry Ford moved
his company to a five-day, 40-hour work week without cutting pay, a break
from the standard six-day schedule that other large employers would
gradually adopt over the following decades; Ford argued publicly that
workers with more leisure time would also become better customers for the
cars his factories built. Consumer prices remained low enough by historical
standards that a first-class stamp still cost just 2 cents, the same price
it had held since mid-1919.
Every 1926 amount converts to 1928 at the same ratio, 0.97: $1,000 becomes
$966, and $10,000 becomes $9,661.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1928
$1.00
$0.97
$5.00
$4.83
$10.00
$9.66
$20.00
$19.32
$50.00
$48.31
$100
$96.61
$500
$483
$1,000
$966
$5,000
$4,831
$10,000
$9,661
$100,000
$96,610
$1,000,000
$966,102
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1928
Every category fell between 1926 and 1928: food the most, down 4.1%, and apparel the least, down 3.5%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1928, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.71%
$96.61
Apparel
-1.75%
$96.53
Food
-2.08%
$95.88
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1926: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $98.31 by
1927, on its way to $96.61 in 1928; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at -1.7% in 1927, and prices fell 1.7% in 1928, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1928, prices fell 1.7% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $96.61; the year's average CPI of 17.1 is the level
behind every 1928 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1928, the second straight year of mild decline
even as the stock market climbed sharply, a widening gap between asset
prices and the cost of living that later economists pointed to as an early
warning sign. The Federal Reserve tightened policy repeatedly over the year,
raising its discount rate in an effort to slow the flood of borrowed money
pouring into stock purchases without derailing the broader economy, a
balancing act it ultimately failed to manage. Herbert Hoover won the
presidential election that November, defeating Democrat Al Smith on a
platform built around continuing the prosperity of the Coolidge years; few
voters or policymakers anticipated how quickly that prosperity would end.
First-class postage remained at 2 cents, a price that had now held for nine
straight years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1928: $100 is worth $96.61 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1928/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1928. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1928/