text: Traditionally , real estate has represented households ' largest asset ; while the total value of households ' real estate holdings grew by 50 percent over the 1990s , real estate steadily declined as a share of households ' total assets from 31 percent in 1990 to 23 percent in 1999 .
  
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  The 1990s saw an 8 % decline in the value of real estate as a share of households ' assets .