For the euro area, the corresponding ratio has hovered around much lower levels of 75–80% since 2007. The indebtedness of euro area households is also lower compared with that of Japanese households. The second key difference between the two episodes is that the adjustment of asset prices was more subdued in the euro area as a whole.
Four years after the peak in residential property prices in the euro area in 2008, the cumulative decline at the aggregate level has been around 3%. Euro area equity prices have also rebounded from their post-Lehman trough.