The average wealth of households with Americans under 40 has grown by 49 percent since the fourth quarter of 2019, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress, using Federal Reserve data.
The Center found that the average wealth of these households grew from $174,000 to $259,000 between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the fourth quarter of 2023, an increase of $85,000, or 49 percent.
CNBC Make It reported that although high inflation and rising interest rates throughout 2022 lowered the average wealth of these Americans—which was up to $280,000 in the first quarter of that year—their average wealth is still much higher than it was before the pandemic began.
This steep increase in wealth stems from several factors, the Center found, including housing wealth (an average increase of $22,000), liquid assets (up, on average, by $9,000), personal business value (up by $10,000), financial assets such as stocks and mutual funds (up by $31,000), and durable goods (up by $7,000).
In addition, during the same period, nonhousing debt—including credit card debt and student loans—fell by $5,000. Thus younger households could more easily pay their expenses.
Another factor is that the homeownership rate for this age group grew by an average 1.5 percentage points during that four-year period, CNBC reported.
The Center for American Progress reported that no other age group has experienced anything close to this this level of wealth accumulation during and after the pandemic. Over the same period, households with Americans ages 40 to 54 saw their average inflation-adjusted wealth fall by 7 percent; for ages 55 to 69, average wealth rose by 4 percent; and for those 70 and older, average wealth increased by 15 percent.
Among just millennial households—those now 28 to 43—inflation-adjusted wealth more than doubled during this period.
By comparison, the Center reported that baby boomers, who were ages 26 to 44 at the beginning of the 1990 recession, increased their wealth by an average of 46 percent four years later. Gen Xers, who were 27 to 42 when the Great Recession began in 2007, had wealth gains of only 4 percent four years later.
The Center concluded that millennials weathered the pandemic recession better financially than did Gen Xers and baby boomers when they experienced recessions at similar ages.