The net worth of US households increased to new heights as from the start of 2021, when the effects of the pandemic began to fade.
Thanks largely to an increase in the stock market, due to which the total balance sheet related to households and non-profits reached to $136.9 trillion in the first quarter of 2020. It is a 3.8% gain from the end of last quarter of 2020, according to latest data released Federal Reserve.
Of that sum total, $3.2 trillion gain came from equity holdings, and $1 trillion was because of continued escalation in values of real estate. The S&P 500 gained approximately 7% for the quarter of 2021 as investors expected rising corporate earnings as well as accommodative monetary and fiscal policy along with also placing speculative bets on the so-called meme stocks.
Household debt summed $16.9 trillion for the first quarter, showing 6.5% growth rate which is the fastest pace since 2006.
Federal government debt increased to 6.5% in the first quarter, which is much below the 10.9% rate in the last quarter of 2020, but still was enough to push the total debt to just below $28 trillion at the end of the first quarter.
Looking from a historical point of view, household net worth is almost doubled from its level of a 10 years ago as the country was still escaping from the struggles of the Great Recession.
