Declines in the price of U.S. homes have depleted an estimated $4.5 trillion from the personal wealth of homeowners, says the latest UCLA Anderson Forecast.

The loss in home value is coupled with stock-price declines of about $7.4 trillion, compared with their value in December 2007, the report calculated.

It is “no accident that the industries linked to the two most durable and most tied to wealth and credit of consumer assets – houses and cars – are suffering,” concludes David Shulman, senior economist for the Anderson Forecast.

Source: Inman News, Glenn Roberts Jr. (12/11/08)