Not properly accounting for differences between business owners and non business owners in
studies of household wealth can lead to erroneous conclusions about the significance of different saving motives.
American home equity has recently recovered, but
much of this household wealth is more likely to be held by older, high - credit - score borrowers less exposed to financial shocks.
The only comparable moment in American history was in 1929, prior to the stock market crash and the Great Depression, when the top 1 percent held 44.2
percent of household wealth.
The blue bars show the average annual amount of the tax in cash terms for each decile
of household wealth in WAS (to construct the deciles, households in WAS were divided into ten equally sized groups according to net household wealth).
The research says that «Home equity remains a key
source of household wealth, accounting for $ 80,000 of the $ 195,500 median net wealth of homeowners in 2013.
Consumer confidence remains at historically high levels, household income growth remains robust and the level
of household wealth relative to current incomes is still high, even given the recent developments in the share market.
According to the new Manulife Bank Canada survey, more than a quarter of homeowners predict their home equity will comprise 80 % or
more of their household wealth at the time they retire — and almost a quarter of those surveyed were already in their fifties.
It has also been one of the principal historical
drivers of household wealth creation in the U.S. as families have purchased, paid off and then sold their homes.
Among the college - educated, those with outstanding student debt are lagging far behind those who are debt free in
terms of household wealth.
To the degree that low down payment mortgages cluster in low and moderate income neighborhoods and given that low and moderate income households have less wealth to begin with, during a real estate bust the disparate impact would be even larger declines in home prices for all homeowners in those neighborhoods (and not just those homeowners will little equity) and an even more devastating
destruction of household wealth.
This effort was born from a desire to address the vanishing wealth in the Latino community precipitated by the housing crisis when Hispanics lost two -
thirds of household wealth.
The Hudson Institute report found that, in 2007, while the richest 10 percent of households owned about 80
percent of household wealth, that group owned only about 45 percent of all home equity.
A research paper by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard concluded that even after the decline in housing prices and the increase of foreclosures beginning in 2007, homeownership continues to be a significant
source of household wealth, particularly for lower - income and minority households.
Robust household income growth bolstered by strong employment growth, fast credit growth and a high
level of household wealth have underpinned the strength in consumption.
With a population placed at 78 million, the boomer generation, representing those born after World War II (between 1946 and 1964) currently control 70 %
of the household wealth in the U.S. according to Brian Sozzi of the Belus Capital Advisors.
Figures from WAS data for 2008 - 10 show that the distribution
of household wealth is highly skewed towards the wealthiest 10 percent of households, who owned 44 percent of all household wealth in 2008 - 10, equivalent to # 4.5 trillion.