Harvard study: Poor homeowners bear brunt - Phoenix Business Journal:

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In Cleveland, Boston and Washington D.C., price declines at the low end of the marketr through December 2008 were more than twice thoser at the high end inpercentage terms, accordintg to Harvard University’s . Nationwide, home equity fell by $2.5 trilliohn in real terms in 2008 and bynearly $5.9 trilliobn (or 43 percent) from the 2005 level, the study “The loss of housing wealth caused consumersw to curtail cash-out refinances and pull back on spending, knockingh an additional 0.9 percentage point off economixc growth last year, the study said, quotinb Moody’s Economy.com.
There is some relatively good Home prices in metro Boston have returnedto pre-20056 levels, the study said. Homeowners who are not under pressure to sell are usuall unwilling to cut theirprices drastically, the studyu said. “This is especially true if the pricew they can get is not enough to pay off the Many would-be sellers therefore prefef to stay put unlesas compelled to move,” according to a reporty called “The State of the Nation’s Housing “Still, the longer that foreclosures remainn a problem, the greater the pressur on sellers to drop their prices.
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