Families Are Being Wiped Out

Housing Market Meltdown Will Cause Massive Losses in Household Wealth

"The report projects that if house prices stay the same through 2009, the median household headed by a person between the ages of 45 and 54, those in their prime earning years, will have 24.7 percent less wealth than did the median household in this age group in 2004. These households will have accumulated just $113,268 in net worth in 2009, barely $15,000 more than their counterparts in 1989, whose net worth totaled $97,600.

If real house prices fall 10 percent, the median household in the 45 to 54 cohort will see a 34.6 percent loss in wealth compared with the median in 2004 while families in the 18 to 34 cohort will lose of 67.6 percent. If prices fall by 20 percent, the most pessimistic scenario, families in the 55-64 cohort will experience a loss of 49.6 percent of their wealth compared to the same cohort in 2004."

Home Prices Off More than 20 Percent Nationally: Report

"A new housing price index suggested earlier this week that housing prices have fallen by 20.1 percent nationally between May 2007 and May of this year; fresh evidence that the nation’s housing woes have yet to subside."