# Stocks just overtook homes as the main source of US household wealth

*The same isn't true in Canada.*

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2026-01-11

stocks, real-estate, housing, canada, us, wealth, net-worth, stats-can

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My dad sent me an article from Canoe Financial over the weekend that included the chart below. What it shows is that corporate equities and mutual fund shares now make up a greater percentage of household wealth in the US than residential real estate for only the second time since 1990.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/5158113a265b7f7339448879eaf7f98b4dd78fa46b2e2a1f23b0a48d7027cb9c.png)

From a macro perspective, and when you consider the popularity of index funds, this means that American households probably have a lot of their wealth concentrated in high-growth tech stocks. And since these stocks are being driven higher largely due to the promise of AI, there's perhaps a concentration risk for US households.

The other thing this chart made me wonder about was what it would look like for Canadian households.

According to [these net worth indicators](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3610066401) released by Statistics Canada in October 2025, real estate as a share of total household assets was sitting at 41.8%. Financial assets as a share of total assets were at 53.4%, but this includes life insurance and pensions, which are not included in the US chart.

If we remove this line item, we're left with "other financial assets" at 37.8%. However, this account also includes cash deposits, bonds, foreign investments, and other receivables, which I also don't think are carried in the US chart. So net-net, Canadian household wealth is composed of real estate at 41.8% and corporate equities at some number _below_ 37.8%.

Real estate is the larger net worth account for Canadian households. Whether this is good or bad is a topic for another post, but there's certainly an argument to be made that Canadians are over-indexing on real estate at the expense of investing in new ideas and businesses.

_Cover photo by_ [_Daniela Araya_](https://unsplash.com/@danielaraya?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) _on_ [_Unsplash_](https://unsplash.com/photos/white-and-multicolored-concrete-house-7So6OOLTLXs?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText)

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/stocks-just-overtook-homes-as-the-main-source-of-us-household-wealth)*