Distribution of housing wealth (primary and nonprimary), by household characteristics

1989 1998 2007 2016 1989–2016 change
Primary residence
Bottom 50 percent 9.8% 14.3% 12.7% 10.4% 0.7%
Bottom 80 percent 45.4% 47.5% 44.0% 40.0% -5.4%
Top 20 percent 54.6% 52.5% 56.0% 60.0% 5.4%
80th–90th percentile 19.9% 17.9% 17.5% 18.6% -1.3%
90th–95th percentile 12.6% 11.6% 11.0% 13.9% 1.3%
96th–99th percentile 15.6% 15.0% 18.2% 16.8% 1.2%
Top 1 percent 6.5% 8.0% 9.3% 10.7% 4.3%
Nonprimary residential property
Bottom 50 percent 2.6% 4.3% 2.2% 1.6% -1.0%
Bottom 80 percent 16.8% 18.1% 13.9% 9.9% -6.9%
Top 20 percent 83.2% 81.9% 86.1% 90.1% 6.9%
80th–90th percentile 15.2% 16.8% 10.7% 12.6% -2.7%
90th–95th percentile 20.6% 15.5% 13.9% 14.9% -5.7%
96th–99th percentile 28.7% 28.7% 34.0% 29.6% 0.9%
Top 1 percent 18.6% 21.0% 27.5% 32.9% 14.3%
Primary residence
White, non-Hispanic 86.4% 87.5% 82.6% 80.6% -5.9%
Black, non-Hispanic 4.9% 5.0% 6.2% 6.5% 1.6%
Hispanic, any race 4.1% 3.7% 6.1% 6.0% 2.0%
Other 4.6% 3.7% 5.1% 6.9% 2.3%
Nonprimary residential property
White, non-Hispanic 87.3% 89.5% 84.2% 86.2% -1.1%
Black, non-Hispanic 4.3% 4.1% 4.1% 5.0% 0.7%
Hispanic, any race 3.1% 3.4% 6.7% 3.6% 0.5%
Other 5.3% 3.0% 5.0% 5.2% -0.1%

Note: Per the Survey of Consumer Finances definitions, primary housing wealth is the total value of the primary residence of a household. Nonprimary housing wealth includes the value of all of other residential real estate owned by the household, including one-to-four family structures, timeshares, and vacation homes.

Source: Author’s analysis of microdata from the Federal Reserve Board Survey of Consumer Finances (2016)

View the underlying data on epi.org.