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Fed: Americans’ net worth down by 20% due to recession

13 February 2009 14:44 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA-Economics. The collapse of U.S. housing and stock prices have likely pushed household net worth down by more than 20 percent in the past year, the Federal Reserve said on Thursday, Reuters reported.
A Fed study of U.S. family finances estimates median family net worth fell by 17.8 percent while mean net worth declined by 22.7 percent.
The mean is the average, and the median is the middle value in a series of numbers.
Relative to 2004, median net worth slipped by 3.2 percent while mean net worth tumbled 12.7 percent.
The data was released as part of a Fed survey of household income and worth from 2004-2007.
However, Fed economists said that as a result of the clear deterioration of the economy since 2007, they made additional estimates based on declines in the values of real estate, businesses and corporate equities through October 2008.
"A lot has happened since our survey ended around the end of 2007," a Fed economist told reporters, citing the official beginning of the recession in December 2007.