- US household wealth has fallen by at least $5 trillion this year, per JPMorgan Chase.
- Billionaires are the biggest losers: Their collective wealth has crashed by $800 billion since November.
- Losses in household wealth could hit growth in the coming year, said JPMorgan Chase.
US household wealth has fallen between $5 trillion and $8 trillion so far this year amid an intense market selloff, according to JPMorgan Chase.
The wealth wipeout comes on the back of heavy losses in equities. The S&P 500 is down about 20% year-to-date and the Nasdaq 100 is down about 30% in the same period. Meanwhile, a Bloomberg index of cryptocurrencies is down about 50% so far this year.
US billionaires are the biggest losers in the market rout, as their collective wealth crashed almost $800 billion since its peak in November, Bloomberg estimated.
Still, overall losses in household net worth will translate into "a wealth shock that is set to drag on growth in the coming year," wrote JPMorgan Chase economists in a note on Friday. That's as consumer spending typically falls by two cents a year with every dollar decline in financial wealth, estimates JPMorgan.
Household wealth could fall further through the second half of 2022 to hit $9 trillion in total losses, the JPMorgan Chase economists estimated in the note seen by Insider.
Among American billionaires, the biggest loser so far is Elon Musk, who has lost about 40% of his wealth since its peak in November when his net worth briefly topped $340 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Most of Musk's wealth is held in Tesla shares, which are down about 45% year to date. He's currently worth about $201 billion, per Bloomberg.
Jeff Bezos — the world's second-richest person — has lost about 40% of his net worth since its peak last year. Bezos is now worth about $131 billion, according to Bloomberg. Amazon shares are down about 37% year to date.
American households and nonprofits held about $170 trillion at the end of 2021, according to the Federal Reserve. More than half the amount is held in real estate and equities.