The richest Americans are more reliant on the stock market than ever. That's a risk

The richest Americans are more reliant on the stock market for their wealth than they've just about ever been before. Stocks now account for a large share of wealth for U.S. households, according to Michael Pearce, deputy chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. Equities that were directly held and in mutual funds accounted for roughly 2.42 times household disposable income in May 2025, the firm found in data going back to 1951. That's ballooned from just 1.51 times household income as recently as 2000, at the top of the dot-com bubble in stocks. The statistic is even more extraordinary when you stack it up against real estate holdings, the traditional driver of household spending in wealthy households. In May, stock holdings also overtook real estate, which stood at 2.36 times household