The oldest homeowner demographic age 70 and above controlled 26% of the roughly $48 trillion in total U.S. real estate wealth as of the third quarter of 2025, according to a new Redfin analysis of the most recent Federal Reserve data. That represents more than 15 years of consistent growth from around 16.5% in the first quarter of 2008.
The ascent of the 70-plus demographic has roughly matched the pace of 40- to 54-year-olds’ declining share of total real estate wealth, which is down from 35.1% at the start of 2008 to 26% in the third quarter of 2025. People in the U.S. under 40 saw their share shrink from 16% to 12.6%, the listings platform says.
The findings underscore that while current homeowners continue to enjoy record levels of housing wealth, the overall concentration of wealth has shifted dramatically to favor older homeowners over the past 15 years.
While the 70-plus and 40-to-54 age groups each had 26% share in the third quarter, the oldest homeowners surpassed the prime earning-age homeowners’ share of real estate wealth for the first time since the Federal Reserve started tracking the figures in 1989.
Senior homeowner equity levels have seen a significant runup during the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, further amplified by consecutive years of rapid home price growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pressing affordability challenges have disproportionately favored current and older homeowners with access to equity from home sales, who can more readily afford to repurchase in today’s high-priced marketplace.
The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association reported at the start of the year that homeowners age 62 and older have seen their home equity balloon from about $4 trillion in 2006 to around $7.5 trillion in the first quarter of 2020. That figure doubled to around $14.6 trillion as of the third quarter of last year.
“Breaking into homeownership wasn’t an easy feat for baby boomers, who faced high inflation and high interest rates,” commented Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, in the analysis released Monday. Mortgage rates then steadily declined for decades, fueling decades of home price growth that has compounded for today’s senior homeowners.
“Those home price gains, along with a rebound in mortgage rates in recent years, have pushed homeownership out of reach for many younger Americans,” added Fairweather.
With nearly $17 trillion in real estate wealth at the end of last September, the 55-to-69 demographic continued to control the largest share of real estate wealth by a wide margin. That cohort surpassed the 40-to-54 demographic for the first time in history during the second quarter of 2010, when each group controlled roughly $6.7 trillion.
The 40-to-54 cohort has seen its real estate wealth grow to about $12.5 trillion over the past 15 years, which closely aligns with the 70-plus age group as of the end of the third quarter. Under-40 real estate wealth has climbed from around $2.5 trillion to about $6 trillion over that period.
The average U.S. homeowner with a mortgage was sitting on roughly $295,000 in accumulated home equity as of the start of 2026, according to real estate analytics firm Cotality.
