The Recession’s toll: How middle class wealth collapsed to a 40-year low

Between 2007 and 2010, median net worth of U.S. households fell by 47 percent. The downturn took a bigger toll on the middle class than the wealthy. The home is most is often the middle class’ biggest asset and housing prices fell through the floor. As the economy turned, the middle class was carrying a lot of debt. In 2007, households had 61 cents in debt for every dollar they had in wealth.  The middle class found itself in a perfect storm when the market turned and the value of assets fell because debt has a nasty way of making net worth fall even faster.