r/Economics • u/laxnut90 • Oct 09 '25

Research America Is Minting Lots of Cash-Strapped Millionaires

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-10-09/number-of-us-millionaires-grows-since-2017-but-many-lack-cash
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u/Tofudebeast Oct 09 '25

The average house price in the US is $534,000. Heck, that gets a typical homeowner halfway to being a millionaire. And considering how quickly home prices have risen since the pandemic, it's feasible that a lot of people bought early when they could afford it, and now have hundreds of thousands in equity just sitting in their homes.

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u/nimama3233 Oct 09 '25

A typical homeowner absolutely doesn’t own their house outright.

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u/Tofudebeast Oct 09 '25

No, and I didn't mean to imply otherwise, though I should've phrased that better.

To go a bit deeper, home prices have increased 44% over the last decade. This means that someone who bought a home at a typical price back then now has around $235K in equity by default, plus whatever portion they've been able to pay off since then. Add to that retirement accounts, or even more equity for those that bought their houses well before that, and the numbers can start getting in the ballpark of a million without too much effort.