The market value of households’ real estate assets rose to a new high in the first quarter reaching $48.7 trillion, according to the most recent release of U.S. Federal Reserve Z.1 Financial Accounts. This level is 1.7% higher than in the fourth quarter and is 2.6% higher than a year ago.
This measure of market value estimates the value of all owner-occupied real estate nationwide. The calculation combines repeat-home sales data with estimates of additions to the housing stock, essentially measuring both price changes and the change in quantity of housing assets. This approach explains why household real estate wealth can continue to rise even as other measures may show a slowing in home price growth.
Real estate secured liabilities of households’ balance sheets, i.e. mortgages, home equity loans, and HELOCs, increased 0.2% in the first quarter to $13.8 trillion. This level is 2.8% higher compared to the first quarter of 2025.
Owners’ equity share of real estate assets was 71.6% in the first quarter. This was the twelfth consecutive quarter where this share was over 70%. Owners’ equity in real estate totaled $34.9 trillion in the first quarter.
Distributional Financial Accounts
The quarterly release of the financial accounts by the Federal Reserve includes extensive balance sheet data. As a supplement to the main release, additional data regarding households is released in the distributional financial accounts a few weeks after the main release. This data contains the level and share of aggregate household wealth by income, age, generation, education, and race. The section below focuses on real estate assets value by generation for households and is current through the fourth quarter of 2025.
In the fourth quarter, households in the Baby Boomer generation held the largest level of real estate assets, totaling $19.4 trillion. Baby Boomers have owned the most real estate wealth since the fourth quarter of 2000. The generation with the second-largest level of real estate assets was Gen X at $14.3 trillion. Millennials held the third most, at $10.2 trillion, while the Silent Generation held $4.1 trillion. Notably, despite owning the least amount of aggregate real estate, households in the Silent Generation were second when the data is adjusted to a per household measure.
While every generation has seen remarkable gains in real estate assets since 2020, households in the Baby Boomer generation have experienced higher gains in terms of value while Millennials have gained the most on a percentage basis. Households in the Baby Boomer generation between the fourth quarter of 2020 to 2025 gained $15,454 in real estate asset value per household, a 47.1% increase. Meanwhile, Millennials gained $9,136 over the same period, an astounding 80.4% increase from 2020. Since these measures are at a per household level, they are smaller than current home prices given not every household owns real estate assets.