Stocks, housing push U.S. household wealth above $80 trillion

万得福

The total amount of household net worth hit a new record of $80.7 trillion at the end of 2013, according to the Federal Reserve.

Here are the numbers:

Total amount of financial wealth now: $66.9 trillion. Pre-recession high: $54.3 trillion (third quarter of 2007). Change since then: 23% increase.

Total amount of real-estate wealth now: $22 trillion. Pre-recession high: $25 trillion (fourth quarter of 2006). Change since then: 11.9% decline.

The changes aren’t quite as stark if you adjust for inflation:

Total change in real financial assets from the pre-recession peak: 9.7% increase.

Total change in real real-estate assets: 7.8% decline.

Still, it’s clear the more securities and other financial assets you have, the more you’ve benefited from the asset reflation that has come at least in part from the Fed’s super-easy-money policies. When you factor in homeownership rates, the flow of wealth to upper-income Americans may be even greater. In 2006, when the amount of real-estate wealth peaked, the homeownership rate was 69%. It’s now about 65%. So a smaller amount of home equity is divvied up among considerably fewer people than it was in 2006. Since lower-income families account for most of those booted from the ranks of homeowners, the wealthy own proportionally more of the nation's residential real estate, and stand to benefit more as housing values recover.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/wealth-rebounds—but-only-for-the-wealthy-181042200.html