Is a house bought for $38,500 in year 1953
equally priced at $1,300,000 for much the same house today?

House is very much the same except for central AC in 1969 and Hurricane windows installed for $26,000 in year 2009.

Price of gold was $36 per Troy ounce in 1953 (and in 1970)
Price of silver was $3 Troy ounce in 1953

Cost of a 8 oz Coke from a vending machine was 5 cents in 1953

There is an economist in England who wrote a serious paper claiming that
he examined many “common” items over many years
and found that the changing retail price of a
Mars Milky Way candy bar,
( called a Mars Red Label candy bar in England)
was a better way to adjust for inflation than government indexes, gold, silver, loaves of bread, etc

Mars is a private USA capitalist company that has been considered efficient and highly competitive over a long span of years.

I do not know of a list of Mars Milky Way prices and candy bar weights by year, though,
but it cost 10 cents in year 1925.

https://www.snackhistory.com/milky-way-candy/

but had gone down to 5 cents in 1954

https://www.tias.com/vintage-ad-1954-mars-milky-way-332931.html