Growing Wealth, Inequality, and Housing in the United States

While aggregate household net wealth grew from $25.9 trillion in 1995 to $50.1 trillion in 2004 (both in 2004 dollars), nearly 90 percent of the net gains occurred only among the top quartile of households in the wealth distribution. This paper discusses both household wealth and inequality growth, examines demographic factors behind the growth, and analyzes housing’s role in it, using the Survey of Consumer Finances data collected by the Federal Reserve Bank.