Doesn't report On dismal 2011 and unfolding 2012.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The recession crushed the net worth of middle-class families as real estate values tumbled, according to a survey released by the Federal Reserve on Monday.
The Fed’s survey of consumer finances between 2007 and 2010, which is adjusted for inflation, showed median income fell 7.7% from $49,600 in 2007 to $45,800 in 2010 and that median net worth fell 38.8% from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010, approximately the level recorded in 1992.
The drop was concentrated in middle-class families. Those in the 60th to 79.9th percentile of income saw the biggest drop in wealth, of 40.4%. The second-steepest drop came from those in the 20th to 39.9th percentile of income, of 35%. The top 10% actually saw an increase of 1.8%.
The top 10% of earners had a median net worth of $1.19 million, or 192 times as much as the median wealth of $6,200 of those in the bottom 20%. In 2007, the top 10% had 138 times as much wealth as the bottom 20%. In 2001, it was 106 times as much.
The Fed’s survey isn’t a surprise — over the 2007–10 period, the U.S. economy experienced its most substantial downturn since the Great Depression — but it sheds more light on the impact of the recession on family finances.
The particularly big drop in net worth was largely due to the burst of the real estate bubble. Between September 2007 and September 2010, U.S. home prices fell by 22%, according to home price data from LoanPerformance.
That the wealth destruction was concentrated on the middle class makes some sense. For the wealthy, housing is a smaller share of net worth, while for the least wealthy, homeownership is less common.
And the survey shows American families in a deleveraging mode. The proportion of families carrying a credit card balance fell 6.7 percentage points to 39.4% in 2010. Among those with a balance, the median balance fell 16.1% to $2,600 in 2010.
The share of families with any type of debt decreased 2.1 percentage points to 74.9%, reversing an increase that had taken place since 2001.
The overall share of families with any stock holdings declined 2.8 percentage points from 2007 to 2010, to 15.1%; the peak was 21.3% in the 2001 survey.
Direct ownership of pooled investment funds (mostly mutual funds) fell by 2.7 percentage points to 8.7% of families in 2010.
The fraction of families with retirement accounts fell 2.6 percentage points to 50.4%; the Fed says the overall rate of retirement account ownership has varied around 50% for about the past decade.
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