The Case and Shiller indices are based on original work by economists, Karl E. Case and Robert J. Shiller, in which their team calculated the home price index back to the year 1890 is the US. When values go up, they also go down, back to the mean, returning to a slight year over year increase, usually about 2% – 3%. The value is on the left and the time is on the bottom. You can see how values goes up and down.