The collapse of home prices and the stock market has taken a toll on the US middle class, particularly for minorities and young adults, a new study suggests.
The middle class benefited from rapid asset appreciation during 2001‐2007 (6 percent per year). But the drop in asset prices during the recession, particularly housing, hit the middle class harder than more affluent Americans.
“Most telling is that the wealth of the average person by 2010 was at its lowest level since 1969,” says Edward Wolff, professor of economics at New York University.
The report, “The Asset Price Meltdown and the Wealth of the Middle Class,” was published by the US 2010 Project at Brown University.
Read more at New York University