It actually surprises me how much money the article says people have saved outside of super. I wouldn't have thought it would be that much just based on anecdotal evidence I see of the people I work and socialise with who seem to have very little savings/investments outside of super unless they are in the process of saving a home deposit.
Though the biggest asset for every age group does seem to be the home, do they take into account the debt that people have o these properties though?
Yes... most is tied up in housing, but there is also a chunk of term deposits and annuities held by oldies.
Standard answer with regard to housing is that 1/3 of people own their home outright (no debt) and a further 1/3 have a mortgage. (The other 1/3 are renters). So a significant proportion has no/little debt.
Of the 1/3 that have a mortgage, data from the major banks shows the average LVR to be around 40%-50% - because for every person who has just bought a property with an 80% loan, there is just as likely to be someone at the end of the cycle who is about to pay off their loan.
Additionally LVRs drop naturally with house price increases.
So... I would say yes the debt is probably taken into account, given there is sufficiently large population data published by the banks to figure it out.
