• The net worth of households and non-profits is now more than $5 trillion above its pre-recession peak at $74.8 trillion in the second quarter of 2013 according to data from the Federal Reserve Flow of Funds.
  • This level indicates a sharp recovery—growth of 11.5 percent from a year ago. This is the 4th consecutive quarter of year over year growth exceeding 9 percent and the 15th consecutive quarter of positive year over year growth.
  • While a reduction of debt led to some increase in net worth earlier in the recovery, the last 3 quarters have showed that total liabilities were roughly stable after 16 consecutive quarters of year over year decline.
  • The bigger driver of increases in net worth now is the recovery of home and stock prices.  Household real estate accounts for $18.6 of the $88 trillion in household assets and owner’s equity in household real estate is $9.3 trillion of the $70 trillion in net worth.  In fact, in the recent quarter, gains were split roughly equally between real estate and financial assets, with each seeing growth between $600 and $700 billion.
  • During the recession, the net worth of households and non-profits—the sum total of tangible assets such as real estate and financial assets such as savings and equities minus liabilities such as mortgages and other debt—took a beating, declining by roughly $13 trillion from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2009..
  • Households and non-profits are grouped together because current data collection by the Fed is not at a level of detail that would make separation of the two groups possible.

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