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Will the Rebound in Equities and Housing Save Retirement?

Author: 
Alicia H. Munnell, Anthony Webb, and Rebecca Cannon Fraenkel
Publication Date: 
December 2013

The 2010 National Retirement Risk Index showed that 53 percent of households will not be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement. But equity and house prices have both increased since then. Interestingly, updating the asset values only reduces the Risk Index to 50 percent because:

  • the rise in house prices has been relatively modest in real terms; and
  • the more robust growth in stocks mainly benefits the top third of households.