New Redfin Report Reveals Disparity as People Struggle to Buy and Rent Homes
The wealthiest 1% of Americans now have a combined net worth nearly equal to the total value of all residential properties across the country, according to a new analysis from real estate brokerage Redfin.
At the end of 2024, the estimated value of approximately 100 million U.S. homes totaled $49.7 trillion, the report said. Meanwhile, the collective net worth of America’s richest 1% reached a record-high $49.2 trillion, nearly matching the value of the entire nation’s residential real estate market.
The findings highlight the vast concentration of wealth in the hands of the nation’s richest households, approximately 1.3 million households that the Federal Reserve defines as having at least $11.2 million in net worth.
Chen Zhao, economics research lead at Redfin, said real estate is a significant part of this group’s wealth, accounting for 12.3% of their total net worth—about $6.1 trillion. She noted that rising home values over the past decade have substantially contributed to their rapidly growing wealth, as most wealthy Americans own real estate outright and avoid mortgage interest payments by purchasing with cash.
“The top 1% can watch their real estate assets appreciate without facing mortgage costs,” Zhao said. “It’s a striking illustration of America’s concentrated wealth that the richest 1% could theoretically afford to buy almost every home in the country without borrowing a dollar, while millions struggle to afford or maintain even one home. In recent decades, asset values—including homes—have grown significantly faster than wages, deepening the divide between America’s richest and poorest.”
According to the report, the wealthiest Americans hold a disproportionate 13.4% of total U.S. real estate assets. By comparison, real estate accounts for a much larger share—46.4%—of total net worth for the bottom 50% of households, underscoring how much more reliant lower-wealth households are on their homes as their primary asset.
This lower-wealth half of American households has a total net worth of only $3.9 trillion, with real estate comprising $1.8 trillion of that amount. They own homes valued at approximately $4.9 trillion but carry $3.1 trillion in mortgage debt, highlighting their vulnerability to mortgage obligations.
By contrast, the top 1% own $6.5 trillion worth of real estate but hold mortgage debt of just $411.5 billion, illustrating how the richest households mostly purchase property with cash.
Even within this richest 1%, an even more exclusive group—the wealthiest 0.1%, about 134,000 households with net worth of at least $46.3 million—controls immense wealth totaling $22.1 trillion. According to Redfin’s analysis, this group alone could afford to purchase every home in America’s 25 largest metro areas, including cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Over the past two years, the net worth of these ultra-rich households rose by nearly 25%, or $4.4 trillion, significantly outpacing the bottom half of households, whose collective wealth increased only 8.5% ($306.3 billion) during the same period.
Redfin based its analysis on estimates of more than 98 million residential properties nationwide, combined with Federal Reserve data tracking wealth distribution among U.S. households.
The full report, along with charts, detailed methodology, and additional metro-specific data, can be viewed on Redfin’s website: https://www.redfin.com/news/wealthy-aggregate-value-2025.
