Despite a brief pandemic-induced recession, higher inflation and rising borrowing costs since 2020, the wealthy have gotten considerably wealthier.
The threshold to be in the top 10% of U.S. households by net worth grew from about $1.3 million to roughly $1.8 million over the last five years, largely due to rising stock and home values, according to a recent Visa analysis of 2024 U.S. Census Bureau survey data. That figure reflects the value of what households own — homes, vehicles, savings, retirement accounts, investments and other assets — minus any debts.
In absolute terms, households already in the top 10% by net worth saw their wealth grow more than any other cohort over the last five years, according to the Federal Reserve’s distribution of wealth data.
The income needed to be in the top 10% also increased, climbing from about $170,000 to roughly $210,000 over the same period, Visa’s analysis shows. For comparison, the U.S. median income is $83,730 as of 2024, per U.S Census Bureau data.
Visa defines “affluent” households as those who either earn at least $210,000 or have a net worth of about $1.8 million, a level that places them above 90% of U.S. households.
About 12.2 million U.S. households qualify under that definition, and Gen X makes up 57% of them, compared with 12% for boomers, the analysis shows. Millennials and Gen Z together account for the remaining 31%.
It may not be surprising that Gen X leads the affluent group, given they’re in their peak earning years, while many boomers are retired.
Most wealth gains came from rising home and stock values
The last five years were unusually good for households that already owned a home or had money in the market. Even through the Covid-19 pandemic and a spike in inflation, the job market stayed strong and consumers kept spending, which kept the economy on solid footing.
Home prices surged beginning in 2020 on tight supply and cheaper mortgage rates, which stayed near historic lows until the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate in 2022, the first increase since December 2018.
Major stock indexes also rebounded quickly from the early 2020 crash and went on to hit new highs, buoyed by a massive federal stimulus and a fast economic recovery, as measured by gross domestic product.
Those trends pushed wealth up much faster than incomes. Paychecks rose, but at roughly half the pace. Between 2020 and 2024, the threshold for the top 10% of net worth grew about 40%, compared with about 23% for income, according to Visa’s analysis.
Broader indicators tell the same story: the U.S. median home price rose about 25% over the last five years, per U.S. Census data, and the S&P 500 gained roughly 109%.
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