Big Loss In Housing Wealth
Accelerating Price Declines in Most Big Cities
A Washington think tank is warning that housing prices are falling at an accelerating level, destroying wealth at a pace that will cost the average homeowner $85,000 in lost wealth this year alone.
At the same time, the price decline implies an incredibly rapid loss of wealth. In real terms, the rate of price decline in the 20-city index would imply a loss of almost $6 trillion in real housing wealth over the course of the year, an average of $85,000 per homeowner. The only time that many Americans have lost that much wealth in a short period of time would have been during the Great Depression.
