The Federal Reserve has released its year-end reading of household net worth, as well as domestic nonfinancial debt, for 2013. The good news is that this is a record high. The bad news is that not everyone is participating. Still, household and nonprofit net worth was $80.664 trillion at the end of 2013.
The 2013 year-end report represents a gain of $3 trillion from the third quarter of 2013, and a gain of $9.8 trillion for the entire year when compared to 2012. The gain was driven by a $5.6 trillion increase in the value of directly and indirectly held corporate equities, as well as a $2.3 trillion bump in the value of real estate.
Domestic nonfinancial debt outstanding was $42 trillion at the end of 2013, of which household debt was $13.1 trillion, nonfinancial business debt was $13.6 trillion and total government debt was $15.3 trillion. Domestic nonfinancial debt growth was 5.4% in the fourth quarter of 2013, about 1.5 percentage points more than in the third quarter. Household debt rose by 0.4% (annualized) in the fourth quarter.
Key metrics were shown as follows:
- Home mortgage debt was down 1% in the fourth quarter, but that was after an increase of 1% in the third quarter.
- Consumer credit rose at an annual rate of 5.4%, about a half-percent less than in the previous quarter.
- Nonfinancial business debt rose at an annual rate of 7.1% in the fourth quarter, after rising 8.4% in the third quarter — corporate bonds accounted for most of the increase.
- State and local government debt fell by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, after falling 3.9% in the third quarter.
- Federal government debt rose at an annual rate of 11.6% in the fourth quarter of 2013, much higher than the 1.5% gain in the third quarter.
24/7 Wall St. just offered a “then versus now bull market anniversary” as Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of the bottom of the stock market in 2009. The Federal Reserve tables showed that the household net worth survey was $57.18 trillion at the end of 2008 and $58.92 trillion at the end of 2009. An increase to almost $80.7 trillion beats a poke in the eye.
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