Americans' wealth and income are up, but credit card debt is too
Americans' wealth rose from 2022 to 2025 at a far slower pace than it did during the COVID-19 pandemic years, the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances revealed.
From 2019 to 2022, the median net
worth, or wealth, for American families surged 37% — the largest jump since the Fed began keeping track — as Americans received aid from the federal government while stock and home values soared. The Fed's latest survey results, which are released every three years, found that surge was not the start of a new trend.
From 2022 to 2025, Americans families' median net worth rose by a much smaller 2%, bringing it to $215,900. The Fed said those three years reinforced wealth inequality's existing patterns. Families that started with a lower net worth often saw their wealth decline, while families with more wealth experienced some of the largest gains.
"If we think about the underlying mechanisms, there's no mystery there," Yuval Bar-Or, a finance professor at Johns Hopkins University said, adding wealthy households have benefited from significant increases in equity values. "But if you're living hand to mouth and barely able to build up an emergency cash fund then you have no investments. ...It's painful when you're on the wrong side of that."
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Against a backdrop of "moderate economic expansion and elevated inflation," the Fed said from 2022 to 2025, "while most families experienced moderate increases in income and net worth, an increasing subset of families appear to have been experiencing financial stress."
Median income, however, rose at a faster pace. Over the survey period, it increased 7% to $82,200 after ticking up 3% from 2019 to 2022. Unlike wealth, the Fed said families with lower earnings and net worth saw modest increases in their incomes while wealthier families experienced declines.
Who got richer?
Not every American. Income and wealth gains varied across demographic groups.
Household incomes were generally up across the board, but Black and Asian families were the exceptions. Median income fell 2% for Black families and declined 3% for Asian families over the survey period. Black Americans were the only racial group to see its median net worth fall. It dropped 25% from 2022 to 2025 after surging 60% from 2019 to 2022.
One potential reason behind that reversal may be that the wealth gap between Black and white workers compressed during the pandemic when service sector occupations that have relatively high shares of Black workers, like health care and transportation, experienced pay raises. In recent years, that compression has largely stopped, according to Boston College economics professor Brian Bethune.
While working Americans of all ages saw a rise in their median income, the growth was particularly strong for families whose main member was older than 75. When it comes to median wealth, those with less to start, like young families, renters and those who didn't graduate high school, experienced declines. In contrast, older families, as well as those at the top end of the income distribution, saw some of the largest gains.
Although less well-off Americans were more likely to experience an increase to their income, those gains didn't lead to more wealth. The median net worth for the bottom fourth of households declined more than 50% from $3,800 in 2022 to $1,700 in 2025. In comparison, the median net worth for families in the top 10% increased about 19% from about $4.15 million to about $4.94 million over the same period.
"No question that the last three years have been a period where you've seen a good stock market and high home values," Mark Schweitzer, a Case Western Reserve University professor and former senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said. "If I'm a renter, I didn't benefit from either of those two trajectories."
Americans falling behind on debt payments
From 2022 to 2025, the share of American families in debt remained about the same at 77%, but fewer were able to make payments on time.
Families were more likely to be behind on their financial obligations than at any other point since 2010, the Fed said. From 2022 to 2025, the portion of families that reported being behind on loan payments leaped from 12% to nearly 20%, and more than 8% said they were two or more months late, up from 5% three years prior.
It's no surprise to Schweitzer.
"Having high inflation makes the world less affordable," he said.
While the amount of families with credit card debt held steady at about 45%, debt balances also rose over the survey period. In 2022, the median balance was $150. In 2025, it was $3,100.
On the bright side, fewer American families had student debt in 2025 than in 2022. The share of families paying off debt related to education dropped 2% to 20%, and the median student debt balance declined 5% to $25,600.
What is the US homeownership rate?
The homeownership rate was essentially unchanged from three years prior at 66%, but the median net housing value rose to $230,000 in 2025, up from $218,900 in 2022.
Home prices soared as more Americans began working from home during the pandemic, enabling them to move out of urban areas into houses with home offices. Record low interest rates helped facilitate their moves.
"Classic housing supply is very inelastic, so the fact that the home ownership rate stayed relatively stable during that period is quite remarkable given the increase in housing prices," Bethune said. "I would say that's a positive."
Rising home values may benefit existing homeowners, but they also make houses less affordable for potential buyers. The median home was worth more than 4.5 times the median family income in 2025, the Fed said.
High home prices, combined with mortgage rates above 7%, have put would-be buyers in a tough spot this year. In a Neighbors Bank survey of those actively searching for, or who recently bought, a home, a minority (21%) said now is a good time to buy.
Retirement planning up but stock market participation down
Whether it was an individual account or a defined benefit plan, Americans' participation in retirement planning increased slightly between 2022 and 2025 to 65%. That participation may have paid off for families with account-type plans, where both median and mean balances rose.
However, Americans' participation in the stock market overall declined from 58% in 2022 to 56% in 2025. Those who stayed in the market built larger portfolios. Median stock holdings grew 36% over the survey period, the Fed said.
Retirement plan participation was boosted in part thanks to young Americans getting started early. The number of young people opening individual accounts and defined benefit plans rose 8% from 42% in 2016 to 50% in 2025. That detail may help explain why stock market participation is down, according to Bethune.
"Suppose you have a portfolio that's $20,000. It's unlikely you're going to put a lot of that in stocks initially because you're sort of being conservative," he said. "As your portfolio grows, let's say to $100,000, then you may say it's worth increasing the portion of stocks."
Reach Rachel Barber at rbarber@usatoday.com, follow her on X @rachelbarber_, and subscribe to her newsletter "Making More of Your Money" here.