The wealth gap between homeowners and renters is huge, a new report says
The wealth gap between homeowners and renters is huge, a new report says
People who own homes tend to be wealthier than those who rent; that’s a truism of personal finance. And according to a recent report from the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program, the gap is huge: The median net worth of a homeowner is about $400,000. A renter’s is just about $10,000.
Owning a home is one of the main ways people build wealth in this country, especially if they’re able to buy when they’re young.
If you can buy a house in your 20s or early 30s, “and pay off that 30-year mortgage over time, you’re going to build wealth much earlier and accumulate more over your lifetime,” said Chris Herbert, managing director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
That’s a big part of why homeowners have more wealth than renters. But it’s not the whole story. Home equity only accounts for about half of the renter-homeowner wealth gap, according to the Aspen Institute.
“People with higher incomes are more likely to become homeowners … but they’re also more likely to have other kinds of investments,” said Vanessa G. Perry. She’s interim dean and a professor at the George Washington University School of Business, and a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center.
Perry said those investments include stocks, bonds and 401(k)s. Nearly 80% of homeowners have at least some of those, but less than half of renters do.
“There’s a sort of ripple effect. When you have home equity and you have the opportunity to stabilize your housing expenses, that affords a household more opportunities to gain more wealth,” she said.
That may look like paying down debt and putting money into savings or retirement.
But with the huge runup in home prices over the last few years, it’s getting increasingly difficult for people to get in to the housing market — especially without family money.
“So that does make it even more important for us to think about, if you’re a renter, how can you build that wealth as early as possible in your life?” said Katherine Lucas McKay with the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program.
“One of the easiest ways is just by opening a retirement account,” they said.
Or an investment account. And in recent years, McKay said, that’s gotten a lot easier to do on your own.
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