Is it safe to say that (nearly) every investor is poorer now than they were a year ago?

Yes and no....total net worth for most folks is probably lower than it was 1 year ago. However, most of those losses are paper losses until you either sell the house or stock., so most folks who hold on will not be poorer in the long run. Also, using a one year time frame is disingenuous, since most of these holdings have been owned for longer than 1 year - houses especially - most people saw a run-up in housing values for the prior 5 years and these houses are still worth more than the purchase price. Of course, anyone buying into either market at the high end has seen the value of their holdings decline tremendously.