The Blubber

More than 13% of the nation’s real estate assets are held by the wealthiest 1% of Americans—a reality that has significantly boosted their fortunes over the past two years amid soaring interest rates and housing shortages. A recent Redfin analysis found that the 1% has become so wealthy that their combined net worth could theoretically buy nearly every home in the country.

The report further determined that the top 0.1% alone could afford to purchase every single home across the nation’s 25 largest metro areas, from New York City to San Antonio.

For everyday Americans, homeownership remains a distant dream, while for the wealthiest, it is an enormous windfall.

Billionaire and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, for example, owns a real estate portfolio valued at $1 billion.

“It’s a striking illustration of wealth concentration in America that the top 1% could, in theory, buy every home in the country—without taking on debt—while millions of households struggle just to buy or hold onto one,” said Chen Zhao, Redfin’s head of economic research, in the report.

This stark imbalance comes at a time when an increasing number of Americans believe homeownership is no longer an attainable goal.

According to the Federal Reserve, the threshold to enter the 1% club requires a minimum net worth of $11.2 million. Approximately 1.3 million American households meet this benchmark, with a combined net worth of $49.2 trillion. To put that figure into perspective, the total value of 100 million U.S. homes stands at $49.7 trillion.

These two staggering figures formed the basis of Redfin’s report, which utilized Federal Reserve data and the estimated value of 98 million U.S. properties. While net worth and aggregate home values are not directly linked, Redfin’s analysis highlighted how the two figures have largely tracked together over the past two decades.

According to Redfin, the total value of U.S. homes exceeded the collective wealth of the top 1% from 2000 until the 2008 housing and financial crisis. However, the wealth of the 1% surpassed home values throughout the 2010s—until a sharp drop-off after 2020, when COVID-19 disruptions hit the heavily invested portfolios of the ultra-rich.

But America’s wealthiest have since rebounded. The richest 0.1% of Americans saw their wealth surge by $4.4 trillion—a 25% increase—in just two years, according to Redfin.

If the 0.1% pooled only the $4.4 trillion gained between 2022 and 2024, they could buy every home in the Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, and Houston metro areas. Their two-year gains alone surpass the combined wealth of the bottom 50% of Americans.