A new study by Christopher Carroll, Misuzu Otsuka and Jirka Slacalek estimates that an increase in housing wealth of $100 in America eventually boosts spending by $9. A similar increase in stock market wealth would produce only $4 more spending.
That ties in with a new microeconomic analysis of individuals' wealth and spending habits by Raphael Bostic, Stuart Gabriel and Gary Painter, which estimates that the wealth effect from housing is around three times bigger than that of financial assets.