US household wealth grew to a record high of $45.153 trillion in the first quarter of 2004, thanks to rising property and mutual fund values, the Federal Reserve says in its quarterly “Flow of Funds” report.
The Fed said household balance sheets rose $665.5 billion from an upwardly revised $44.488 trillion figure for the fourth quarter of 2003, despite a dip in the value of the stock market.
Total borrowing, excluding the financial sector, rose at a seasonally adjusted 8.6 percent annual rate in the first quarter, up from a revised 6.4 percent rise in 2003’s final quarter. The Fed said the pickup in domestic nonfinancial debt mainly reflected faster borrowing by the household sector as well as federal, state and local governments.