Are US households always so sensitive to real estate prices?

The massive rise in unemployment in the United States is going to lead to a very sharp rise in household mortgage loan defaults and to a sharp fall in consumption and in housing purchases. From 2007 to 2009, households’ problems (rise in defaults, fall in demand) were amplified by the fact that the fall in real estate prices had stopped them from withdrawing equity from their home , which was possible when estate prices were rising . Could the same mechanism arise today? Do the financial resources and situation of US households still depend as much today on real estate prices as before the subprime crisis? We note that in the lead-up to the coronavirus crisis, US households were not withdraw ing equity from the rise in real estate prices. In the lead-up to the subprime crisis, in contrast, home equity withdrawal accounted for 10% of their income. The US economy is therefore less sensitive to a real estate crisis, especially as there is now also much less mortgage loan securitisation than in 2008.