Apr
21
America’s Wealth Effect From Rising Home Prices Has Been Cut in Half
ByA legacy of the real estate bust.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
The U.S. consumer might be the engine of global growth — just not the roaring V12 it used to be.
From the fourth quarter of 2003 through 2006, amid the real estate bubble, personal consumption expenditures grew at an average annual clip of 3.5 percent. Since the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite 20-City Home Price Index bottomed out in March 2012, however, personal consumption expenditures have increased by just 2.3 percent, on average…
America’s Wealth Effect From Rising Home Prices Has Been Cut in Half