Household Wealth Is the Highest Ever. Probably Not Your Household’s, Though

[cali]

American households now have a total net worth of $83 trillion, but most families are still behind where they were in 2007.

Americans’ total wealth has reached a record. According to a Federal Reserve report released Thursday, the net worth of U.S. households and nonprofit organizations rose to $82.9 trillion at the end of 2014.

Much of that growth was driven by stocks, which grew in value by $742 billion during the final quarter of last year. The value of residential real estate also rose by $356 billion.

However, these aggregate numbers from the Fed provide only a partial view of Americans’ financial well-being. Since wealth is spread unevenly, so is the effect of gains in asset value. The median household—the one that’s richer than about half of households, but poorer than the other half—is likely still well behind where it was before the financial crisis.

The most recent solid data on this runs through 2013. As MONEY recently reported, an analysis by researchers at the University of Michigan last year found that the median wealth of a U.S. household, in inflation-adjusted dollars, dropped 36% from 2003 to 2013. In that same period, the richest 5% of households saw their median net worth increase by 12%.

In 2003, the wealthiest 5% of Americans had a net worth 13 times that of the median household. By 2013, that disparity had nearly doubled, with these households holding 24 times that of the median.

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http://time.com/money/3743956/household-wealth-highest-ever/

[daleo]

1. Concentrating wealth in fewer hands

Is a sign of incipient social decay, historically. It ends badly.

[MiniMe]

2. I'm ahead of where I was in 2007, but only because my mother died

I'd rather have my mother still around.

[Major Nikon]

5. People tend to make more as they get older, up to a point

So even if everyone is better off than they were in 2007, it doesn't mean the nation is collectively better off.

[MiniMe]

6. Wasn't trying to make that comparison at all

My parents did very well for themselves. I did OK before they died, but the only reason I am OK now and better off than I was before is because they died. Still wish they were still here.

I really think that my parents generation was probably the last generation that benefited from FDR. I didn't enter the workforce until the 80's and Reagan ruined everything.

[SomethingFishy]

3. Haven't seen a raise since 2006... not even a cost of living raise.

They keep telling me there is no money. There's money for private jets, summer houses, vacations and lavish dinners, but no money for raises...

[Dirty Socialist]

4. The Middle Class Is Getting Fucked

By the greedy rich. Big dividends for the 1 percent, shit jobs for many of the rest of us. This is big news!

[Yorktown]

7. If it is solace, stocks will dive sharply anytime soon.

All forward indicators point to a sharp downward correction,

to be followed by one or two decades of depressed stock prices.

All converging: PER history + Buffett indicator + Kondratieff

[PowerToThePeople]

8. I have this dream

that someday my net worth will be zero. That will be a grand day indeed.