The older millennials have crossed over into homeownership while the younger half struggles.
The pandemic years transformed wealth in the US, sowing the seeds of a new form of inequality.
The divide is clear when describing the state of family finances in 2024. Household balance sheets, in aggregate, are arguably in the best shape ever. At the same time, borrowers are getting squeezed as high interest rates make servicing new debt more challenging. This sets up a difficult balancing act for the Federal Reserve as it contemplates policy changes.
A blog post published last week by the St. Louis Fed provides some important context. The authors looked at the median household wealth of people based on the decade in which they were born and compared it with where history suggests they should be. For example, how are older millennials born in the 1980s doing compared with past generations when they were the same age.