Weak Housing Market Worries Savers

Although housing prices have increased recently, the improvement from the 2008-2009 downturn has been modest at best compared to the improvement in equities. The improvement has primarily benefited the top one-third of households, while the bottom two-thirds continue to struggle. According to the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College, equity prices have increased by 45% since 2010, adjusting for inflation, versus just 6% for housing prices. For the top one-third, the "at-risk" group declined slightly to 40%. Will the other groups showed a very slight improvement, more than half remain at risk (52% for middle income, 60% for lower income). The CRR notes that housing is a much more significant asset for most households than are equities.