An Answer for John 27/01 /2022

 Between January 1971 and December 2019, gold had average annual returns of 10.61 percent, which was only slightly behind the return of commodities, with 10.69 percent average annual returns.

Going back to 1900 & Beyond .

Gold actually averages a 9% return

The historical average stock market return is 10%

The S&P 500 index comprises about 500 of America's largest publicly traded companies and is considered the benchmark measure for annual returns. When investors say “the market,” they mean the S&P 500.

Keep in mind: The market’s long-term average of 10% is only the “headline” rate: That rate is reduced by inflation. Currently, investors can expect to lose purchasing power of 2% to 3% every year due to inflation.

Actually Stock market returns are about 8.2% , since 1900 & Beyond .

Housing US / UK

Since 1940, the median home value in the United States has increased at an annualized rate of 5.5%. But this is misleading. Homes are significantly larger today, on average, than they were back then. The average home in 1940 was 1,246 square feet, roughly half of the 2,430 average of 2010. Adjusting for home size, the annualized increase on a per-square-foot basis drops to 4.6%. After accounting for inflation, the average home value has risen by just 1.5% per year.

Of course certain areas and prices may have risen very very differently , due to a myriad of differing circumstance 

Is property a better pension investment than shares?

A bigger shadow is the faith that many Brits put in property as their pension. Anyone who has read the Money section of a Sunday newspaper will be familiar with the question regularly posed to celebrity interviewees: Which is better, property or pension? In all but a tiny minority of cases, the answer comes back “property”.

House prices have tended to rise over time, so it is not hard to understand why people say this. £100,000 worth of UK property 25 years ago would be worth an average of around £451,000 today. This obviously varies by region. In London it would be worth around £660,000 and in Scotland, £378,000. These figures exclude any costs of ownership such as maintenance, repairs, insurance or taxes; any income generated by the property (not relevant for primary residence, only buy-to-let); and the impact of leverage/mortgage finance.

However, that same £100,000 invested in the global stock market (again, excluding any costs) would have grown even more, to around £727,000. This is 10% more than in even the best performing regional property market, London. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter whether you look at this over 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 year horizons. The stock market would always have resulted in a bigger increase in your £100,000 compared with UK residential property.

In fact since 1900 , UK house prices have risen by about 6.8% per annum .

In conclusion .

Gold 9%

Stocks 8.2%

Housing 6.8%