The Wealth of the Baby Boom Cohorts After the Collapse of the Housing Bubble

It is the economics research paper of the year.

Two economists - David Rosnick and Dean Baker - from Center for Economic and Policy Research, look at the impact of the US housing crash on the wealth of the baby boomer generation. They confirm what we all suspected; the boomers are busted.

Their key findings were:

The median household with a person between the ages of 45 to 54 saw its net worth fall by more than 45 percent between 2004 and 2009.

If the median late baby boomer household took all of the wealth they had accumulated during their lifetime, they would still owe approximately 45 percent of the price of a typical house and have no other assets whatsoever.

The situation for early baby boomers is somewhat worse. The median household with a person between the ages of 55 and 64 saw its wealth fall by almost 50 percent.

As a result of the plunge in house prices, many baby boomers now have little or no equity in their home.

The author's projections show that for both age groups (45-54 and 55-64), the renters within each wealth quintile in 2004 will have more wealth in 2009 than homeowners.