There has been a lot of talk about negative housing equity, but of course this is a symptom which can be experienced both by those who have truly been placed in a difficult position by the crisis, and by those who have emerged relatively unscathed.
There are people who, though they paid a lot more for their house than it is now worth, have not experienced any decline in living standards since the crisis began.3 As a result, the increase in negative equity for owner-occupiers is not a reliable indicator of stressed living standards.