For a year, a rising stock market made Americans richer almost on its own. Last quarter that engine stalled.
Household wealth still crept up, but only by $100 billion. That was the weakest gain in a year.
Net worth is everything households own minus everything they owe. It hit a record $183.0 trillion in the first quarter.
But the gain was tiny. The value of stocks Americans hold fell by $1.8 trillion as the market dropped.
Higher home values and bigger bank balances filled the hole. Real estate added $0.8 trillion, and cash added $0.4 trillion.
The change comes from two things: money moving in and out, and prices rising or falling. Last quarter, falling stock prices did most of the damage.
A year ago, surging stocks were adding trillions each quarter. This time they went the other way.
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Stocks are now the biggest piece of the pie. Americans hold about $64.8 trillion in them, more than the $48.7 trillion tied up in their homes.
There is also a way to measure wealth against income. That ratio slipped to 7.81, though it still sits well above its long-run average.
In plain terms, it shows how much wealth households hold for every dollar they earn. They are very rich on paper, they just did not get much richer last quarter.
The first quarter was the slowest stretch for wealth since early last year. Stocks simply ran out of steam.
Most of the swing in household wealth comes from two things, stocks and home prices. Stocks move fastest, so they move the number the most.
Those gains are not shared evenly. The top earners own most stocks, so when the market dips their paper wealth takes the hit first.
When the market has a strong quarter, wealth jumps. When it stumbles, the whole figure flattens, which is exactly what just happened.
That uneven split matters for the whole number. A handful of strong market days can lift the country's wealth, and weak ones can stall it.
Underneath the headline number sat a steadier story. Household debt grew just 2.6%, a slow pace.
Americans owe $13.8 trillion on home loans and $5.1 trillion on credit cards, car loans, and the like. Against income, that debt load is near its lowest since the late 1990s.
The wealth machine still works. But it now runs on one main engine, and that engine is the stock market.
It was still a record high, just barely, with the gain simply the smallest in a year. The next reading covers a stretch when markets stayed shaky, so a flat quarter for stocks is now a flat quarter for the country's wealth.
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