The impact of the housing crash on the wealth of the baby boom cohorts.
The collapse of the housing bubble and the resulting plunge in the stock market destroyed more than $10 trillion in household wealth. The impact was especially severe for the baby boom cohorts who are at or near retirement age. This paper uses data from the Federal Reserve Board's 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances to compare the wealth of the baby boomer cohorts just before the crash with projections of household wealth following the crash. These projections show that most baby boomers will be almost entirely dependent on their Social Security income after they stop working.
Rosnick
David
D
Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, DC 20009, USA. rosnick@cepr.net
Baker
Dean
D
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D057172:Economic Recession; D006798:Housing / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D011158:Population Growth; D012179:Retirement / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012943:Social Security / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States