Many of those approaching or gearing up to approach the age of comfortable retirement, might be in for an unpleasant surprise. A report was recently conducted by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The report looked at the holdings of families run by people from the age of 45-54 in 2004 and then the now estimated wealth of their holding in 2009. Based on the decline in home value, if prices do not rise by the end of 2009, there will be about a 24.7 % wealth loss from the value averaged in 2004.

As home prices keep falling, the wealth lossage is also expected to fall. If the prices go down by 10%, a 34.6% loss will be seen, and if they fall by 20% the loss will be 45.6%.

Co author of the CERPś written report, Dean Baker, says that “This extraordinary destruction of wealth will have tremendous implications for millions of families as they enter retirement,...Coupled with a very low personal savings rate, this means that many people will only have Social Security and Medicare to rely on in their retirement."