>How much, if any, of this increase in *incomes* is an increase in *material
>welfare* is a hard question. But it does mean that households have more
>cash income with which to pay their mortgages.
And bigger mortgages, too. Here are the equity and loan-to-value ratios for owner-occupiers, from the Fed's flow of funds' household balance sheets <http://www.bog.frb.fed.us/releases/z1/Disk/btabs.zip>.
owners' mortgage/
equity value
1945 86.3% 13.7%
1950 82.9% 17.1%
1960 72.5% 27.5%
1970 68.7% 31.3%
1980 69.2% 30.8%
1990 62.3% 37.7%
1991 60.5% 39.5%
1992 59.7% 40.3%
1993 58.8% 41.2%
1994 57.5% 42.5%
1995 57.1% 42.9%
1996 56.8% 43.2%
1997 56.7% 43.3%
Doug