The median American homeowner held $230,000 of equity in a primary residence in 2025, which the Federal Reserve’s own report describes as a record high in inflation-adjusted terms. But the three-year gain behind that record was the slowest of any survey since 2013. That is the central housing finding of the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, which the Federal Reserve Board released at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Oct. 9, 2026.
The survey runs every three years and is the most detailed public accounting of what American families own and owe. The 2025 edition drew on interviews with 4,367 families, and all dollar figures in the Fed’s summary report, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025, are in 2025 dollars.
Housing wealth at a record, but barely moving
Net housing value β a home’s value minus the mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit secured by it β rose 5 percent at the median, from $218,900 in the 2022 survey to $230,000 in 2025. The mean rose 4 percent, from $367,000 to $380,400.
Those increases keep housing wealth at what the report calls a record high, a mark it first passed in 2022 when it exceeded the pre-financial-crisis peak. But the pace collapsed. Across the three surveys before 2025, median net housing value grew at an average rate of 26 percent between readings, and the mean at 19 percent. The 2019-to-2022 stretch alone produced a 44 percent jump in the median.
Gross home values held up better than equity: among families that own their primary residence, the median reported value rose 6 percent to $375,000 and the mean rose 4 percent to $534,000. The report notes for comparison that the CoreLogic House Price Index rose 12 percent over the same window; the survey measures what owners say their homes are worth, not repeat sales.
Homeownership flat, affordability stuck at its worst
The homeownership rate was about 66 percent in 2025, essentially unchanged from 2022. Ownership of primary residences specifically slipped to 65.6 percent from 66.1 percent β a move the Fed treats as statistically flat. The rate remains about 3.5 percentage points below its 2004 peak of 69.1 percent, and above the 63.7 percent low recorded in 2016.
Affordability did not improve. The report’s measure β median nominal home value divided by median nominal family income β stayed above 4.5, about unchanged from the record set in 2022 and far above the 3.5 trough of 2016. Real median family income rose 7 percent over the period, to $82,200 in 2024 from $76,900 in 2021, and even that did not move the ratio. The same plateau shows up in the Census Bureau’s quarterly data, where the national homeownership rate has been stuck near 65 percent while buyers under 35 lost ground.
Who owns a home shifted at the edges. Among families in the top 10 percent of usual income, homeownership rose to 92 percent from 89 percent. In the upper-middle income group it fell to 78 percent from 80 percent. The bottom income group was about unchanged. Among owners, the largest equity gains went to families between the 40th and 60th percentiles of usual income; families between the 20th and 40th percentiles saw their median and mean net housing wealth decline.
Mortgage balances up, and the gap with renters widened
About 42 percent of families carried debt secured by a primary residence in 2025, roughly the same share as in 2022. Among those families, the median balance rose 8 percent to $183,600 and the mean rose 3 percent to $239,700. Because 65.6 percent of families own their principal residence, the report observes that almost two-thirds of homeowners carry home-secured debt and just over one-third own free and clear.
Rising balances alongside slower equity growth echo the pattern in the Fed’s quarterly flow-of-funds data, where household real estate wealth has approached $50 trillion while mortgage debt grows faster than home values.
The ownership divide shows up most starkly in total wealth. Homeowners’ median net worth rose 6 percent to $458,900 and their mean rose 8 percent to $1,812,900. Renters and other non-owners went the other way: median net worth fell 7 percent to $10,600 and the mean fell 9 percent to $153,500. For all families, median net worth rose 2 percent to $215,900 while the mean rose 7 percent to $1,241,500.
Families also reported more real estate beyond the primary home. The share owning other residential property, such as second homes or timeshares, rose to 13.8 percent from 12.9 percent, with the median value up 14 percent to $280,000. Equity in nonresidential property was held by 7.1 percent of families, up from 5.9 percent, at a median of $135,000.
Payment stress is the warning signal
The survey’s financial-vulnerability measures moved the wrong way. The median debt payment-to-income ratio rose 2.0 percentage points to 15.4 percent, an increase the report says may be related to higher interest rates on mortgages and consumer loans. The share of families whose debt payments exceed 40 percent of income climbed to 8.6 percent from 6.5 percent β a level last seen in the 2013 survey.
Delinquency worsened more sharply. The share of families reporting they had been behind on any loan payment rose from about 12 percent to almost 20 percent, the highest since the 2010 survey, and more than 8 percent said they were two months late or more, up from 5 percent.
On our reading, the combination is what matters for housing: equity is at a record but no longer compounding, mortgage balances are larger, and a growing minority of borrowers is stretched. The Fed published an interactive chartbook and the survey microdata alongside the report. More of our coverage of household balance sheets and prices is in Housing Market.
