If You Rent, Brace Yourself — Homeowners Have 43x's More Wealth And It's Mostly From One Thing You're Paying For But Never Get: Equity
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Buying a house used to be a financial milestone. Now it's basically a wealth supercharger — and if you ask Realtor.com, that gap has only grown wider.
According to their 2025 analysis — which blends Federal Reserve data with current housing market trends — today's typical homeowner has a net worth of around $430,000, while renters sit closer to $10,000. That's a 43-to-1 difference.
But here's the thing: those estimates are still anchored in the last official dataset from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, which was conducted in 2022. That report showed the median homeowner's net worth at $396,200, compared to just $10,400 for renters — a 38-to-1 difference at the time.
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The Federal Reserve only runs the SCF every three years, so the 2022 numbers remain the most recent official release. The next full update will arrive in 2026.
Why the Gap Is So Crazy Wide
Two big forces are at play:
1. Home Equity Is a Wealth Multiplier
Homeowners don't just live under a roof — they build equity. Pay a mortgage for a few years and you own a bigger piece of your home's value. When prices go up — as they did strongly in the years before 2022 — that equity grows even faster. Home equity often makes up 50% or more of a household's total net worth.
That's not a small effect. That's a primary driver of household wealth.
2. Renters Can't Tap That Same Engine
Paying rent doesn't build equity. You get a place to live, but no ownership stake, no price appreciation, and no asset to leverage for future borrowing or investment. Month after month, renter dollars help someone else build wealth — not you.
The Trend Isn't New — But It's Getting Sharper
Back in 2019, the homeowner-renter wealth gap was already massive, but less extreme. By 2022, the Fed noted this was the largest three-year jump in median net worth differences in the history of the modern SCF — more than double the next largest increase on record.
That means homeowner wealth didn't just grow — it accelerated, even as broader economic challenges slowed other kinds of saving.
So What Can You Do If You're Renting?
If you can't buy a traditional home right now, that doesn't mean all doors are closed. There are steps someone can realistically take to get positioned on the "wealth side" of this chasm:
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