The median net worth of households in the U.S. rose nearly $25,000 between 2016 and 2019, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Research Institute for Housing America. This is the highest three-year gain since 2007. The average household net worth as of 2019 was $127,000.
“After nearly a decade of rising inequality during the Great Recession and its aftermath, the distribution of wealth in the United States became somewhat more equal between 2016 and 2019,” said Dr. John C. Wicher, Director for the Center for Housing and Financial Markets at the Hudson Institute. “The increase in homeownership, and the steady rise in home values and the stock market drove the increase in middle-class wealth.”
The homeownership rate in the U.S. rose considerably over the three-year period measured in this report. Home equity is often a household’s biggest source of wealth and driver of overall net worth.
Meanwhile, conforming no-point 30-year fixed mortgage rates are averaging 3.0 percent and 15-year rates are near 2.25 percent.
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