Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the F8 Facebook Developers conference on April 30, 2019 in San Jose, California.
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There are 618,000 millennial millionaires in the U.S. and their wealth is only expected to grow.
Millennials are expected to be five times wealthier in the next decade than they are now, according to a report by Coldwell Banker. Some of their wealth can be attributed to what’s been dubbed the “Great Wealth Transfer,” where nearly $68 trillion in assets are expected to flow to younger-generations.
“The difference between the millionaires of the early 1980s and the ones being created today is that many of them stand to inherit even more wealth from their baby boomer parents, who are considered the wealthiest generation in history,” the report says.
Currently, 93% of millennial millionaires have a net wealth between approximately $1 million and $2.5 million, according to the report. Nearly 60% live in either California or New York and they are investing more in real estate than their elder-millionaire counterparts.
On average, millennial millionaires own three homes, slightly higher than the 2.4 properties the average older millionaire possesses. They also have larger real estate portfolios than non-millennials, $1.4 million compared to $919,000.
In addition to inheriting their money, the report suggests that there is a significant tech influence to the rise of millennial wealth. Some of the top zip codes for millennial millionaires are in Silicon Valley, including Cupertino, California home to the tech behemoth, Apple — though only about 15% are business owners.
The report goes on to say that the next generation of millionaires value home ownership and consider it key to wealth-building in the long term.
“Both younger and older millennial millionaires in Silicon Valley share the view that real estate is key to wealth creation. Even younger millionaires in their 20s who know their life is going to change and probably only plan on living in a property for two to three years. They have the intention of hanging on to the property afterwards and converting to a rental property,” the report says.