By Howard Schneider
WASHINGTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The exit from the COVID-19 pandemic raised incomes and wealth for most US households, with income gains concentrated among the less well off, but a growing share of households was stressed by rising debt during a period of high inflation, a Federal Reserve survey of consumer finances from 2022 to 2025 showed.
"Against this backdrop of moderate economic expansion and elevated inflation ... while most families experienced moderate increases in income
and net worth, an increasing subset of families appear to have been experiencing financial stress," with the share of families having debt payment-to-income ratios of 40% or more rising from 6.5% to 8.6%, a level not seen since 2013, the Fed said on Friday in its latest triennial survey.
Median family income adjusted for inflation rose 7% to $82,200 during the period, when the tight labor market of the pandemic gradually gave way to a small rise in unemployment. Households at the lower end of the income distribution saw the largest gains, consistent with conditions in the post-pandemic era, when firms were short of workers, particularly in the services sector, and employers offered pay hikes and bonuses to attract and retain employees.
Real median net worth rose 2% to $215,900, and "most families across the net worth and income distributions experienced increases," the Fed said in a press release accompanying the document.
The homeownership rate remained stable at about 66%, while participation in the stock market dropped slightly from 58% in 2022 to 56% in 2025.
The survey covered a national sample of 4,367 households and was conducted mostly from April through December 2025.
The slight narrowing of income inequality and overall broad wealth gains occurred while net worth for Black families and the less well off declined. Families in the bottom quartile of wealth saw their net worth drop from $3,800 to $1,700, while "Black non-Hispanic families experienced a large decline in median net worth" of 25%, even though their average net worth rose about 5%. That trend reversed a pattern of gains seen since 2013, the Fed said.
(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Paul Simao)
