Actually it's more like a very significant amount of people have the majority of their net worth "stored" in their homes. https://www.census.gov/people/wealth/

Actually it's more like a very significant amount of people have the majority of their net worth "stored" in their homes. https://www.census.gov/people/wealth/files/Wealth%20Highlights%202011.pdf https://www.census.gov/people/wealth/files/Wealth%20Highligh... (Direct link to spreadsheet here: http://www.census.gov/people/wealth/files/Wealth_Tables_2011.xlsx http://www.census.gov/people/wealth/files/Wealth_Tables_2011...) It's kind of difficult to fully read this 2011 survey since "percent holding" and "median value" is in two separate tabs, and it's hard to get a good sense of correlations. But the spreadsheet seems to show: - Almost 70% of people owned a savings account, with a median value of $2,450 overall. - 29% of people own a checking account, with a median value of $600 - 85% of people own a motor vehicle, with a median value of about $6,800 - 65% of people own a home, with a median equity value of $80,000 - 42% of people have a 401k, with a median value of $30,000 - 29% of people have an IRA account, with a median value of $32,000. By far, it appears that housing is the most valuable asset many people own; at least, in every category, the median for housing is higher (sometimes up to 6 times higher) than the median for a 401K account. Also, it seems that a far more percentage of people have houses compared to 401Ks, the next largest category with >$10K median assets. Now, is it a bad sign? The only things I can say: A) Houses are hardly a "liquid asset". B) Home ownership for many reasons is declining (http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/04/28/u-s-homeownership-rate-falls-again-nearing-a-48-year-low/ http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/04/28/u-s-homeownership-...). The later point makes me wondering if future generations' preparation for retirement may be impacted. The former is not a bad thing if you do have liquid assets for emergencies etc, but I can imagine there is a significant percentage which do not. (A 401K really isn't a great "liquid asset" for instance, and some probably don't have much of that.)