The Comeback of the Bottom Half
Yes, they’ve got a long way to go to recover lost ground. But the improving financial strength of the less-affuent 50% of U.S. households is still a big deal.
Rising home values are helping lift the bottom half.
Photographer: Marco Bello/Bloomberg
Which part of the U.S. wealth distribution saw its net worth rise the fastest over the past year, five years and decade? No, not the top 1%, according to the distributional financial accounts published last month by the Federal Reserve.
The rich had a great run, but they didn’t even come close to the percentage gains in real wealth seen by the bottom 50%. These amounted to 21.9% over the past year, 125.6% over five years and 526.2% over 10 years, compared with the one-percenters’ 10.3%, 33.8% and 83.9%.