ultra high net worth households

Spectrem Group Reports That Millionaires Are On The Rise Again!

Filed under: Wealth

We've been reporting for a while now that the number of millionaires in the United states has been dropping. This is no surprise given the economic downturn the country has experienced. On Tuesday the Spectrem Group released a report stating that after a huge drop in the number of millionaires that the number of affluent households is starting to show signs of improvement.

According to their market research, after a sharp decline in wealth in 2008, the number of United States millionaires grew 16% to 7.8 million in 2009. The group reported that in 2007 a total of 9.2 households claimed millionaire status, the highest number in a ten year period that began in 1997. The Ultra High Net Worth households, considered to be those with a net worth of 5 million or more, also demonstrated a rebound of 17% to 980,00 in 2009. The market findings are based on the Spectrem Group's "Affluent Market Insights 2010" which is a survey that they claim has an error margin of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

The President of Spectrem Group George H. Walper, is quoted in the press release as saying it is" welcome news for an economy still working to recover." They conclude that while things are looking up due to the improvement of some asset classes the real estate market and general economy is still keeping the total number of millionaires well below its previous 1997 high. In an interesting related analysis, the company also researches a monthly Millionaire Investor Confidence Index which was down a point. It was also at the same level as the Affluent Investor Confidence Index (affluent being described as those with a $500,000 or over net worth) which is an unusual finding as the millionaires tend to be generally more optimistic than the affluent.

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