Either way, with the stock of household wealth now twice as large, relative to the flow of current income, as it was in the early 1980s, and the equity contained therein much more accessible via products such as re-draw facilities and home equity loans, and more recently reverse mortgages, these changes have the potential to exert bigger influences on economic performance than in the past.
Yet the statistical information about some important elements of these phenomena is poor. Take dwelling prices, a key ingredient in estimating aggregate household wealth. In Australia, there are five series that are routinely used.