--- title: Americans' Total Wealth Reaches Record High description: Americans' total wealth is being supported by their increased investments in real estate. authors: - name: Kerry Close url: https://money.com/author/kerry-close/ at_money_since: 2016 articles: 182 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/kerryclose former_staff: true published: '2016-06-09T21:01:45.000Z' modified: '2016-06-09T21:01:45.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Americans - Federal Reserve - pubdesk - Wealth word_count: 317 canonical: https://money.com/americans-total-wealth-record-high/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Americans' total wealth has reached a record high.](https://img.money.com/2016/06/gettyimages-482913165.jpg) *Americans' total wealth has reached a record high.* Perhaps counterintuitively, Americans are wealthier than ever. Total wealth reached a record high of $88.1 trillion in the first quarter of 2016, according to a report from the Federal Reserve released Thursday. Increasing home values bolstered the collective net worth of Americans and offset stock market dips at the beginning of the year, [the *Wall Street Journal* reported](http://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-total-wealth-hits-record-according-to-federal-reserve-report-1465488231). A $498 billion increase in residential real-estate values propelled the wealth increase, while the overall value of equities declined by $160 billion. While assets like stocks and bonds are held disproportionately by the wealthiest U.S. households, homes are more broadly owned by middle-income households. Since nearly two-thirds of Americans own homes, an increase in home prices has helped many middle-tier households. In recent years, mortgage balances and home prices have increased at a steady clip. The total home equity that Americans have in real estate has almost recovered to its level at the height of the housing bubble, surpassing $13 trillion in the most recent report. The report, called "Flow of Funds," tracks the total balance sheet of U.S. households to show how the moving parts of wealth shift over time. It does not show a breakdown of the distribution of these assets among individual households or different demographic groups. Another key difference in American household finance since the crisis: People aren't taking on as much debt. Total liabilities rose by just $17 billion in the first quarter, and remain at a lower level than during the financial crisis. Other data, however, suggests that most people in the U.S. are seeing their net worth and income decline, in inflation-adjusted terms, in recent years. Any gains in wealth have instead been concentrated among the wealthy. The middle class has been hit particularly hard: While the share of total wealth going to middle-income households was 62% in 1970, it's fallen to about 43% in , [according to the Pew Research Center](http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/americans-total-wealth-record-high/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Wealth", "item": "https://money.com/wealth/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Americans' Total Wealth Reaches Record High" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/americans-total-wealth-record-high/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/americans-total-wealth-record-high/", "name": "Americans' Total Wealth Reaches Record High", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-06-09T21:01:45.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/americans-total-wealth-record-high/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/americans-total-wealth-record-high/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-06-09T21:01:45.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Americans' Total Wealth Reaches Record High", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/06/gettyimages-482913165.jpg", "width": 5120, "height": 3413, "caption": "Americans-wealth-high" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kerry Close", "url": "https://money.com/author/kerry-close/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kerry-close/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/kerryclose" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-06-09T21:01:45.000Z", "description": "Americans' total wealth is being supported by their increased investments in real estate.", "abstract": "Americans' total wealth is being supported by their increased investments in real estate.", "@id": "https://money.com/americans-total-wealth-record-high/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-06-09T21:01:45.000Z", "wordCount": 317, "keywords": [ "Americans", "Federal Reserve", "pubdesk", "Wealth" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Wealth", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth" ] } ] } ] } ```