Chances to bring money home in America are at the lowest in 25 years

American consumers pressed by slack salaries and growing prices have now less belief in that they would bring more money home and they think that such chances are now at their lowest in 25 years, says the analysis of survey data by Goldman Sachs.

Jan Hatzius, Goldman’s economic, analyzed the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters poll, which asks consumers whether they believe their family income will rise more than inflation in the next 12 months.

“Households are already very pessimistic about future real income growth,” wrote Goldman’s economist to clients. “A slowdown in job growth would presumably translate into a further deterioration in (expected and actual) real income growth. This would heighten the downside risks to our current forecast that real consumer spending will grow 2.5 percent to 3 percent over the next year and might call for another downward revision to our forecast for US GDP growth in 2011 and 2012.”

Goldman notes that real hourly wages have dropped 2.1 percent on an annualized basis over the past six months, a rate unseen for the past 20 years.

A separate survey by the Conference Board showed earlier this week that the proportion of consumers expecting their incomes to increase was below 15 percent in May.

“I am much more concerned that the second half resurgence we all expect never arrives and by early 2012 we are in a recession,” said Joe Terranova, chief market strategist for Virtus investment Partners and a ‘Fast Money’ trader.