Julia L. Coronado, Dean Maki, and Ben Weitzer
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199230778
- eISBN:
- 9780191710971
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199230778.003.0014
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Pensions and Pension Management
This chapter evaluates housing wealth and its potential role in Baby Boomers' retirement wellbeing. The Health and Retirement Survey is used to compare Boomers' wealth position to that of the ...
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This chapter evaluates housing wealth and its potential role in Baby Boomers' retirement wellbeing. The Health and Retirement Survey is used to compare Boomers' wealth position to that of the immediately preceding cohort, just prior to retirement. Results show that Boomers have more valuable homes but have also borrowed more against them, so they have a similar fraction of assets allocated to home equity as their predecessors. Unlike prior studies, this chapter shows that people do view housing as a source of wealth that can help them finance their retirement needs. Indeed, a substantial fraction of older households do move and appear to liquidate some home equity in the process. Consequently, some of the recent home equity extraction may be related to the aging of the population rather than a cyclical response to rapid house appreciation.Less
This chapter evaluates housing wealth and its potential role in Baby Boomers' retirement wellbeing. The Health and Retirement Survey is used to compare Boomers' wealth position to that of the immediately preceding cohort, just prior to retirement. Results show that Boomers have more valuable homes but have also borrowed more against them, so they have a similar fraction of assets allocated to home equity as their predecessors. Unlike prior studies, this chapter shows that people do view housing as a source of wealth that can help them finance their retirement needs. Indeed, a substantial fraction of older households do move and appear to liquidate some home equity in the process. Consequently, some of the recent home equity extraction may be related to the aging of the population rather than a cyclical response to rapid house appreciation.
