Wealth Recovery from the Great Recession

Lowell Ricketts, lead analyst with the St. Louis Fed’s Center for Household Financial Stability, examined the change in wealth of typical families in 2010, 2013 and 2016—all relative to 2007. He spoke during a recent Dialogue with the Fed event. In this clip, he showed the degree to which median wealth of young, middle-aged and old families has recovered to levels before the Great Recession.

“What we can glean from this is that families at the middle still have far to go before they’ve recovered prerecession wealth levels, and this is more significantly the case for young and middle-aged families,” Ricketts said.

Additional Resources

• Dialogue with the Fed: A Lost Generation? Young Families after the Great Recession
• On the Economy: When the Stock Market Rises, Who Benefits?
• On the Economy: Income and Wealth Gaps: College Grads vs. Nongrads