Gut-check: Economy vs Personal Finance in America June 13, 2006
Here’s a non-technical analysis on what’s going on now. According to this CNN/Money article, net household wealth hits record high, but debt rose at the fastest rate since 1986, the Federal Reserve said on Thursday. At the same time, America has a negative savings rate. So let’s summarize the household financial status this year,
- Household Net Worth: UP (primarily paper gains of real estate)
- Household Debt: UP, +11.6% (annualized)
- Household Savings Rate: DOWN, -0.4% (related nextbracket post)
- Household Income: UP, +5.4% (Over the past 12 months, personal income has risen 5.4%)
Here’s the economic environment we’re in today:
- Inflation: UP, 5.1% (During the first four months of 2006, the CPI-U rose at a 5.1 percent seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR))
- US National Debt: UP (to $8.4trillion National Debt Clock)
- Mortgage Rate: UP, +6.6% ytd (30 year fixed rate as of June 9, 2006 was 6.62% historical rates)
- Stock Market (S&P 500 Index): DOWN, 2.5% (ytd as of 6/12/06)
From what I’ve seen out there, there are a lot of nervous economists out there…not to mention us people who are doing our best to support our families. Do the figures above say anything about Americans?
Source:
News Release: Personal Income and Outlays, Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), May 2006
Consumer Price Index Summary, April 2006
- Posted in : Economy, Net Worth, Real Estate
- Author : Kyle
Comments»
Thanks for the post above. I am wondering whether there general public are too ofetn mired in confusion regarding housing finance. May be, we professionals should not stress on jargons but explain it in meaningful words. When there is a boom, there are many suckers!!
Cheers!
Peter
Home Purchase