Real estate and recovery in share prices account for improvement
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Per capita net worth for Swiss households rose to about CHF333,000 in 2009, up from CHF316,000.
Home values rose in Switzerland in 2010
Housing prices and a recovery in share prices have brought Swiss household income back up to the level of 2007, before the 2008 global economic crisis, figures published Friday 19 November by the Swiss National Bank show. Financial assets held by households grew 8.7 percent in 2009, up CHF151 billion to CHF1,883 billion.
“Movements in financial assets were strongly influenced by rising stock market prices: roughly one-third of the price losses suffered in 2008 was recouped in 2009 on stock markets in Switzerland and abroad,” the central bank notes in a statement. The stock market improvement resulted in the value of household shares rising by CHF43 billion to CHF212b. The value of collective investment schemes climbed by CHF19b to CHF181b.
Pension funds see contributions outweigh benefits drawn
Pension funds, too, saw an improvement: contributions to occupational pension schemes exceeded the benefits drawn and price gains were recorded on pension fund investments, says the SNB.
More home buyers and rising apartment prices account for higher real estate value
Swiss households' real estate assets, now more transparent
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The net worth of Swiss households fell in 2008 from an average of CHF334,000 per capita to CHF312,000. About CHF200,000 of this is real estate and claims against insurance and pension plans. The drop in assets, the first since 2002, was due to sharp falls in stock market values. It would have been worse but for higher real estate values, which provided something of a safety net. Real estate assets, CHF1,315 billion in total, accounted for 43 percent of all household assets at the end of 2008, up from 39 percent the previous year.
Real estate prices climbed in 2008
The total value of households’ real estate rose by CHF73 billion in 2008.
The figures were released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) Friday 20 November, as part of the national financial accounts. This is the first year that assets include households’ real estate. The report notes that:
“financial assets held by households declined by CHF199 billion (10.4%) to CHF1,718 billion, while assets held in real estate increased by CHF73 billion (5.9%) to CHF1,315 billion. Liabilities rose by CHF15 billion (2.4%) to CHF629 billion. As a result of these developments, households’ net worth fell by CHF 141 billion (5.5%) to CHF2,403 billion.”
Health care debate (cartoon: © 2009 Patrick Chappatte)
New York, USA (GenevaLunch) – Economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times (registration required) 17 August says of President Barack Obama’s proposed health plan that “it most resembles the system in Switzerland.” More pointedly, he says that unlike what many, including Fox News, would like the public to believe, the plan will not turn the US into a Soviet Union or a distorted version of Britain, but rather: “the truth is that the plans on the table would, roughly speaking, turn America into Switzerland – which may be occupied by lederhosen-wearing holey-cheese eaters, but wasn’t a socialist hellhole the last time I looked.”
Obamacare, he says, “is a plan to Swissify America, using regulation and subsidies to ensure universal coverage.”
Krugman has pointed to this similarity several times recently, prompting debate over how well the US could adopt the Swiss mandatory and well-regulated but largely private system, but facts about the Swiss system are few on the ground in the US debate.
