The top 20% of Americans now own the majority of US real estate:
The top 1% of US earners hold a record $6.1 trillion in real estate, followed by the next 19% who hold $21.0 trillion, an all-time high.
This means the top 20% own a combined $27.1 trillion, or 56.4% of total US real estate wealth.
By comparison, in the mid-1990s, this percentage stood at 47.6%.
Meanwhile, the bottom 20% hold just $2.5 trillion, or 5.1%.
At the same time, the 60th-80th percentile of US earners own 18.7% of real estate wealth.
The US wealth divide is at record highs.
The top 20% of Americans now own the majority of US real estate:
The top 1% of US earners hold a record $6.1 trillion in real estate, followed by the next 19% who hold $21.0 trillion, an all-time high.
This means the top 20% own a combined $27.1 trillion, or 56.4% of total US… pic.twitter.com/OZVdv4rwWO
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) April 11, 2026
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, recently took to X to point at a recession indicator his team built — one that has been signaling a downturn since January.
“Recession risks thus remain uncomfortably high, with close to even odds of a downturn in the coming year,” Zandi wrote on X (1). “So says our leading recession indicator.”
The indicator he refers to is their Vicious Cycle Index (VCI), which reportedly shows that the U.S. economy crossed into recession territory in January and stayed there through February and March — although there were 178,000 new jobs created in March, which Zandi believes isn’t reassuring.