God bless bailouts and skirting personal responsibility. The debt burden on U.S. consumers is now at its lowest point in 6 years, shrinking to an astonishingly high $13.4 Trillion or 116% of disposable income. Average household net worth increased to $505,000 in 2010, up 5.1% from 2009.
The absurd reality is that consumers, despite what men in burlap overcoats say, are flush with cash and/or credit— and may start to spend like wild Indians, drunk at Foxwoods, lending to the ongoing recovery.
First post
Average household net worth increased to $505,000?
No way that is treu.
$5,005 is more like it
People are rich as fuck: it’s true.
All time high is 595k
Morari Shah, a 59-year-old Miami entrepreneur and real-estate investor, is among those taking a radical approach to reducing debts.
Since late 2008, he and his wife have slashed their total debt from nearly $1 million to zero by walking away from the mortgages on four rental properties and paying off two others, all of which lost about half their value in the housing bust. He’s no longer taking up to $4,000 from his monthly income to pay mortgage interest that the rental income didn’t cover.
Instead, he and his wife are fulfilling their goal of building a new $350,000, four-bedroom home in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville, where they plan to retire. “It’s a big relief,” said Mr. Shah. “We went through some rough times, but now I’m comfortable and don’t have to worry about my retirement.”
THAT’S ONE WAY TO RETIRE DEBT!
They call that jingle-mail. You mail the keys to your house and sign the deed back to the lender.
They don’t have to accept it, but the lenders are so f’d up they won’t get around to responding for 6 mos. Too late by then.
It is supposedly $505k because the average American shithead doesn’t know you are supposed to subtract your debt/mortgage from it….
“you mean I have to pay that back…fuck’em”
Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704823004576192602754071800.html
Yeah, you can almost see it.
http://ibankcoin.com/mr_cain_thaler/files/2011/02/2-17-11-HNP-Ex.-2.png
Is this calc households + non profits?
Ah, good point. It is, from the census.
First Post says:
That’s the mean. The median is around $120,000.
Of course it ignores the $3 trillion deficit over the past three years and that is about $25 k per household. All in 2007 dollars of course.
Half of the reduction in debt was walking away from credit card and mortgage debt and someone is wearing that pain
From August 2010-
Today the median net worth of an American household is $91,304.
II the equity in homes and motor vehicles is factored out of the net worth figure then the median figure is about $34,000 or about 2/3 of the annual median income generated by a typical American household today. I dont think it has improved much in 6 months.
The WSJ number shows just how much more those at the top have.
Assuming people will continue to over-overspend in a more uncertain time. And assuming the next generation embrace greed over sharing as the babyboomers die off. And assuming the zombie banks can actually provide that extra room without imploding. Speech over. Peace out. Which way to the bathrooms