And the top 0.1% could buy every home in the 25 most-populous metro areas
Look no further than the housing market for evidence of income inequality.
The richest 1% of Americans have enough wealth to buy 99% of the the homes in the country, according to a report from real-estate website Redfin, citing the comany's ownhousing data and the Federal Reserve.
Redfin said that the combined value of nearly 100 million U.S. homes reached $49.7 trillion at the end of 2024, compared with the richest 1%'s combined wealth that grew to a record $49.2 trillion.
It is a striking example of the concentration of wealth in America that the top 1% could hypothetically afford to buy every home in the country without going into debt while millions of households struggle to buy or hold onto just one," Redfin Econmics Research Lead Chen Zhao said in the report."Asset growth, including real estate, has consistently outpaced wage growth in recent decades, increasing the gap between the top and bottom wealth brackets.
Zhao said the wealthiest 1% already own a disproportionate 13.4% share of real estate in the U.S.
This group is able to watch their real estate assets appreciate without facing mortgage interest payments, as they mainly buy homes with cash, she said.
The gap is even starker among the richest top tenth of one percent of Americans.
The top 0.1% wealthiest Americans have a combined net worth of $22.2 trillion, which is enough to buy every home in the 25 most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S, including New York City and Los Angeles, Redfin said.
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Posted: 2025-03-11 21:49:53
