Record Household Net Worth Exceeds $56 Trillion

Associated Press: U.S. households' total net worth continued to climb in the first quarter of 2007, advancing 1.1 percent to a record $56.18 trillion, the Federal Reserve said Thursday (see graph above).

In the January-March period household net worth grew for the 18th consecutive quarter. The record $56.18 trillion posted in the most recent quarter was up from the fourth quarter's $55.59 trillion, the previous record high.

Note: This was an increase of $590 billion in net worth since the previous quarter, which is about $2000 per person, or $8000 per household of four. The average person uses about 40 gallons of gas per month, or 120 gallons in a quarter. Even in a quarter when gas prices rise by $1 per gallon (which would be unusally high), it would only adversely affect the spending of the average household of two drivers by $240, which seems kind of insignificant in comparison to the increase in the average household net worth.