American Households Hit 43-Year Low In Net Worth

To put the following into context with Canada:

In June/July this year, it was reported that the *average* Canadian household net-worth was $363,000, while in the US the average was $320,000.

The disparity gets worse for the US when we look at the median numbers.

In 2005, the *median* assets of Canadian families was $229,930 and the median debt was $44,500. Their median net worth was $148,350, 23.2% higher than in 1999. (I've reported here in the past that a higher percentage of Canadians fully own their own homes vs americans).

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So the AVERAGE Canadian household net worth is 13% higher than the average US household net worth.

Looking at the median US household net-worth in the years 2004 ($89.9k),

2007 ($107.8K) and 2010 ($57k) and extrapolating that to get a number for 2005 ($95.9k).

So the MEDIAN Canadian household net worth was 54% higher than the median US household net worth in 2005. That is a huge disparity, but one can only imagine how bad it is now given the toilet-dump your economy took in 2008.

Since residential property values DID NOT crash in Canada in 2008 (indeed - it has instead appreciated moderately in the 7 years since

2005) if we compare the Canadian median in 2005 with the US median in 2010 (assuming NO growth in the Canadian median in the past 7 years) we get this absolutely appalling fact:

The MEDIAN Canadian household net worth is *2.6 times* that of the median US household net worth (based on 2005 and 2010 data).

These numbers indicate that as you well know, there is a very small "super-class" of americans with high income and high net-worth that skews your average values (average income, average net worth) and the real story is in the median numbers. That "super-class" controls your country and is driving the current recession - to their benefit.

These numbers should now illustrate why the American Dream is alive and well -> in Canada.

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WASHINGTON (CBS DC) ? The median net worth of American households has dropped to a 43-year low as the lower and middle classes appear poorer and less stable than they have been since 1969.

According to a recent study by New York University economics professor Edward N. Wolff, median net worth is at the decades-low figure of $57,000 (in 2010 dollars). And as the numbers in his study reflect, the situation only appears worse when all the statistics are taken as a whole.

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According to Wolff, between 1983 and 2010, the percentage of households with less than $10,000 in assets (using constant 1995 dollars) rose from

29.7 percent to 37.1 percent. The ?less than $10,000 figure includes the numerous households that have no assets at all, or ?negative assets?

- which is otherwise known as ?debt.?

Over that same period of time, the wealthiest 1 percent of American households increased their average wealth by 71 percent.

As noted by Daily Finance, from 1983 to 2010 the share of total wealth held by the richest 10 percent of American households increased from

68.2 percent to 76.7 percent. Meanwhile, all the rest of Americans lost financial ground.

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An August Pew Research Center study found that many in the middle-class are divided on how they believe his gap widened.

Fully 85 percent of self-described middle-class adults say it is more difficult now than it was a decade ago for middle-class people to maintain their standard of living. Of those who feel this way, 62 percent say ?a lot? of the blame lies with Congress, while 54 percent say the same about banks and financial institutions, 47 percent about large corporations, 44 percent about the Bush administration, 39 percent about foreign competition and 34 percent about the Obama administration.

Just 8 percent put ?a lot? of blame on the middle class itself.

?This downbeat take on their economic situation comes at the end of a decade in which, for the first time since the end of World War II, mean family incomes declined for Americans in all income tiers,? the Pew Report stated. ?But the middle-income tier?defined in this Pew Research analysis as all adults whose annual household income is two-thirds to double the national median ?is the only one that also shrunk in size, a trend that has continued over the past four decades.?

Wolff?s focus on total wealth not only measures how much money a household brings in, but also the amount it accumulates. This latter number is very significant ? economically secure households are generally more comfortable spending their disposable income, and are less likely to become a drag on the social safety net.

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Reply to
Sherman Hemsley
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And your point is ?????????

Reply to
Doug

The Canadian house bubble is due to burst. Starting in Vancouver. Next year.

Reply to
harry

Sorry Harry.

I know that you (and other clueless people) have been saying that for several years, but it just reflects your complete ignorance of the Canadian real estate market.

Again, let me paint you a picture:

As of 2006, there are 12.4 million households in Canada. Of those, 8.5 million live in some form of "home" - ie they do not rent. There are

530,000 such non-rental (free-hold) households in the metro Vancouver area.

So metro Vancouver represents 6.24% of the total Canadian residential non-rental real estate market. Any meltdown there is not going to have dire consequences for the country at large.

Second, Canadians live under much different mortgage rules than americans. This has an enormous effect on how inflated any given property can become and how leveraged an owner can be.

Third - the air has been coming out of the Vancouver market already. Average home-transaction prices have fallen by 10% year-over-year as of August. And nobody's jumping from the roofs over this.

Fourth, housing starts in Vancouver have been a rock-solid 19,000 to

21,000 every year between 2004 and 2008 - BUT fell dramatically to 8,000 in 2009. Guess where they were in 2010? 15,000. These numbers are the total of condos, "freehold" ownership, and rental. Condo construction crashed in 2009 (from 15,000 in 2008 to 5,000 units in 2009) but rebounded to about 8,000 units in 2010. Freehold construction fell from 5,000 to about 3,500 and rebounded to about 7,000 units in 2010.

There is really only 1 area of the metro-Vancouver area (West Vancouver) that has seen significant increases in home prices. The median value of "Owned Dwellings" in the entire Metro-Vancouver area is $450k, while for West-Vancouver the number is $1.0 million. That number is $400k for Toronto, and $350k for Calgary.

And finally, there are those that say that Vancouver already had it's real estate meltdown -> in 2009. I tend to believe that.

Reply to
Homeward Dude

I can't speak for the OP, but I would guess that he's just being neighborly by serving you up some humble pie.

How did it taste?

Reply to
Home Guy

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