Family Net Worth Drops to Level of Early ’90s, Fed Says

June 11th, 2012

Via: New York Times:

The recent financial crisis left the median American family in 2010 with no more wealth than they had in the early 1990s, erasing almost two decades of accumulated prosperity, the Federal Reserve said Monday.

The median family, richer than half of the nation’s families and poorer than the other half, had a net worth of $77,300 in 2010, down from $126,400 in 2007, the Fed said. The crash of housing prices explained three-quarters of the loss.

This vast loss of wealth was compounded by a loss of income, as the earnings of the median family fell by 7.7 percent over the same period.

The new data come from the Fed’s much-anticipated release Monday of its triennial Survey of Consumer Finance, one of the broadest and deepest sources of information about the financial health of American families. The latest survey is based on data collected in 2010. Figures are reported in 2010 dollars.

Unsurprisingly, the report is full of grim news, and although it is news from 18 months ago, fresher sources of economic data make clear that most households have since seen only modest increases, at best, in wealth and income.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.