Posted on 03/10/2005 10:29:08 AM PST by West Coast Conservative
Rising real estate prices and a resurgent U.S. stock market pushed the net wealth of American households to a record high in the fourth quarter of 2004, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.
In its quarterly "Flow of Funds" report, the central bank said household balance sheet values rose to $48.53 trillion in the fourth quarter, up from $46.59 trillion in the third quarter.
The third quarter net worth was originally reported at $46.68 trillion, which had also been a record. The data is not seasonally adjusted.
Higher values for real estate, equities and mutual funds led the net wealth gains in the fourth quarter, the Fed said. Pension fund reserves also posted a healthy increase.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.netscape.cnn.com ...
Capitalism strikes again!
Then again, you can't spend your home price, now can you ? And home equity loans is just setting yourself up for a fall if there is a "correction".
...since Herbert Hoover
I don't accept surface reports like this. We in New England are all going in the poor house between the price of heating oil, gas and real-estate. My $70k income in NH used to be considered upper middle class, now my income pays the bills and mortgage only and I consider myself conservative on credit card usage and such.
$48.5 Trillion averages out at $161,767 of net worth above debt per American (valid for all ages). That's every man, woman, and child in America; on average, *each* has $161,767 more in assets and cash than is owed in debt.
No nation in history has ever before spread this much prosperity to this many people.
ping
I wonder what roll a falling dollar and rising prices have? Reedstate values going up really only means property taxes (along with everything else) are going up.
Just total up your assets and cash, subtract your full debt load, and then divide by the number of people in your home. If that answer comes to more than $161,767.00, then you are above average.
If we talk of class in America at all nowadays, I would put the "Middle class" range starting at six figures up to one million in annual earnings. Under $100K would be "Working class". Consider that a good auto mechanic can earn nearly $100K and stevedores and a few other blue collar trades can earn even more. Traditionally, the "Middle class" consists of doctors, lawyers, business owners, large farm owners etc. In America, we all think of ourselves as "Middle class" and only differentiate on the basis of income or assets. We also completely disavow any "Upper class" at all. (Except of course entertainers, politicians and professional athletes)
In truth, at least in my experience, "Class" is more a matter of self image and attitude than of income measured in dollars.
Which IIRC is just slightly more than the unfunded obligations of Social Security and Medicare.
Wow. And if all this wealth came at the expense of the poor, those poor must have been pretty wealthy! ;-)
I'm sorry, but I beg to differ with you. Unless you stop making your loan payments, how are you "setting yourself up for a fall?" When was the last time that homes depreciated nationwide? The great depression? That was seventy years ago! Where else can you get money for any purpose, and not only not pay taxes on it, but use it as a tax deduction?
our household has been in a state of flux, husband losing his job, retirement and medical insurance at retirement, and our one dtr developing a worrisome disorder but OTOH, we seem to be paying down our mortgage rapidly, we have no other monthly bills such as car payments, and our other dtr is doing well at school(finally!) and ready to matriculate to upper division, and the sun is shining and spring is almost here.....
The Democrats are deeply saddened.
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At first I was surprised that CNN and Reuters were actually allowing good news to slip out, but when I dug up the actual report from the fed (Complete file PDF (478 KB) I began to catch the 'rest of the story'. Namely, the MSM acts like this is some kind of sudden economic resuscitation in the 'third quarter'-- in fact, this has been going on for quite a while.
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It's weird how when ever you ask anyone about business, they always say 'I'm doing great but everyone else is broke" --it's because everyone really is doing great but they're getting their info from Dan Rather and Willie Green.
The professional pessimists constantly rant about the 'death of the middle class', outsourcing, deficits, illegal immigration. At the same time the American family has been socking it away. Dang, if this is the economic catastrophy we've been hearing about, who need's prosperity?
do your assets include your retirement savings?.....and I am assuming it includes what you would get for your house if you sold it today....thx
while only the interest is required , proud to say that we are at least $10,000 below what our mortage was at that time, and that included paying off two vehicles.....we can do that because more of our money is going to the principle of the loan....
we do realize that interest rates are going up, but we are still ahead until it hits 7% and at that time, our loan will be basically gone....
it requires discipline though, because I know some people use these loans as fun money....we use it only as cheaper money for the mortgage....
'Roger' on the Pension Funds-- the table on page 102 of the fed's report (link in post 16) has Family wealth broken down into about three dozen catagories.
ping
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