[R-G] The Impact of the Housing Crash on Family Wealth

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/the-impact-of-the-housing-crash-on-family-wealth/>
The Impact of the Housing Crash on Family Wealth

July 2008, Dean Baker and David Rosnick

This paper extrapolates from data from the 2004 Survey of Consumer
Finance to project household wealth, by wealth quintile, in 2009 under
three alternative scenarios. The first scenario assumes that real
house prices fall no further than their level as of March 2008. The
second scenario assumes that real house prices fall an additional 10
percent as a 2009 average. The third scenario assumes that real house
prices fall an additional 20 percent for a 2009 average. The
projections show that the vast majority of families will see a
substantial reduction in wealth by 2009 in any of these scenarios and
that the cohorts just approaching retirement will have very little to
support themselves in retirement other than their Social Security. The
projections also show that a large number of families will have little
or no equity in their homes in 2009.

<http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/wealth_2008_07.pdf>