Ah, yes.
But, that is exactly what this graph shows and if anyone believes it was drawn up for the sake of showing how SMART American homebuyers are, think again.
Because, you see, that 'wealth' the average American calls "The American Dream," doesn't really belong to the owner of the property. It belongs to the US Chamber of Commerce and ultimately Wall Street.
They covet everything. They covert every aspect of a person's life. If there is a way to make a buck, they know about it.
And you see having all that money as assets to Americans as a retirement fund was simply a waste of money to folks at the US Chamber of Commerce.
So, how to they move Americans to HAND OVER their 'American Dream?'
...The rise in the market value of homes (click title to entry - thank you) since the early 1990s has led to a substantial increase in the level of housing wealth (figure 1). However, since the mid-1980s, mortgage debt has grown more rapidly than home values, resulting in a decline in housing wealth as a share of the value of homes (figure 2).
There is broad agreement in the literature that housing wealth supports consumption; however, there is considerable disagreement as to the magnitude of the effect and much debate as to whether the marginal propensity to consume (MPC) out of housing wealth differs from the MPC from financial wealth. There also is disagreement as to whether home equity extraction adds to PCE beyond the traditional wealth effect....
