US Household Net Worth Rose 4.3% in 2014
In the fourth quarter of 2014, the net worth of U.S. households and nonprofit organizations rose 4.3%.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, the net worth of U.S. households and nonprofit organizations rose to $82.9 trillion, up 4.3% from $78.84 trillion at the end of 2013. The value of households’ real-estate rose from $19.65 trillion to $20.63 trillion and the value of real-estate owned by nonprofit organizations rose from $2.67 trillion to $2.91 trillion.
The value of directly and indirectly held corporate equities rose by $742 billion year-over-year and the value of real-estate rose $356 billion. The data come from the Federal Reserve report on financial accounts of the United States released Thursday.
Non-financial debt of households rose by 2.7% year-over-year and business debt rose by 7.2% which the report attributes to an increase in the issuance of corporate bonds. Federal government debt rose at an annual rate of 5.4%, down from 6.5% year-over-year growth in 2013 and down from 7.2% compared with the third quarter of 2014. State and local government debt rose at an annual rate of 1.1% in the fourth quarter, but was down 2.8% compared with the third quarter.
Household and nonprofit organization assets totaled $97.07 trillion at the end of the 2014 fourth quarter and liabilities totaled $14.15 trillion. Non-financial assets totaled $29.08 trillion and financial assets totaled $68 trillion. Financial assets include $10.23 trillion in deposits, up from $9.66 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2013. Equities totaled $23.73 trillion, up from $22.03 trillion in the prior year, up 7.7% year over year.
As a share of total assets, equities comprised 24.4% compared with 23.8% at the end of 2013 and 20.5% at the end of 2012. Financial assets comprised 34.9% of household and nonprofit organizations net worth in 2014, up from 33.9% in 2013 and 29.3% in 2012.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
