Homeownership is associated with greater household wealth in the Federal Reserve's survey. Understanding that relationship requires looking at mortgage payments, changes in home values and the financial position of people who buy.
What the wealth figures establish
Homeowners had substantially higher median net worth than renters in the survey cited here. The survey does not establish how much of that difference was caused by owning a home.
The figure
The Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances puts the median net worth of a homeowning household at $396,200 and that of a renting household at $10,400. The homeowner figure is roughly 38 times the renter figure.
Related reading: how the 30-year fixed mortgage came to be.
Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances, 2022.
The comparison includes a selection effect: households with more income and savings are more likely to buy. The survey cannot isolate how much of the wealth difference homeownership itself creates.
How owning builds wealth
With an amortizing mortgage, the principal portion of a payment reduces the outstanding debt. Over a decade, those repayments can accumulate as equity. Rent pays for the use of a home without building an ownership interest in that property.
Borrowing also magnifies changes in the value of the owner's initial investment. In the example here, a buyer putting 10 percent down on a home that appreciates 4 percent sees a gain equivalent to 40 percent of that down payment, before costs. The financing arrangement is discussed in the linked mortgage article.
The principal and interest on a 30-year fixed mortgage stay the same in year twenty as in year one. That provides payment certainty, although it does not make every cost of owning a home fixed.
Costs and limits of the comparison
Transaction costs, maintenance and the possibility of falling values belong in the comparison. A short stay can lose money even when prices rise, because buying and selling both cost money. The break-even point depends on the purchase, the financing and the rent it replaces. Borrowing can magnify losses as well as gains.
In the National Association of REALTORS' 2025 profile, first-time buyers were 21 percent of the market, the lowest share since the survey began in 1981. The median first-time buyer was 40 years old, a record in that survey.
What it means here
The national median existing-home price in July 2026 was $434,100. Each Indiana community's own figures are on its page, and every one of them is an area median, not a test of what a particular household can afford.
Sources: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances 2022 and "Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2019 to 2022"; National Association of REALTORS, 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers; Indiana Association of REALTORS Housing Hub, July 2026; National Association of REALTORS, existing-home median price, July 2026. All read at source, September 2026.