Turn on the news, look at your retirement accounts, or talk to investors and you’ll soon discover that our U.S. economy is doing pretty well these days. The stock market is setting new all time high records every month, investments are up and people are spending money again. But what about home prices? Yep, those are up as well.
It’s reported by Zillow Research that the total value of all U.S. homes has reached $27.5 TRILLION dollars! Yes, that is trillion with a T.
So in theory, what would it look like if everyone in the U.S. sold their house today?
First of all, trying to wrap your mind around a figure such as a trillion dollars is taxing enough, not to mention $27.5 trillion. Nevertheless, we’ll give it a shot.
- You could pay down the entire U.S. debt. Currently our national debt is just over $18 trillion. You could do this and still have $9 trillion left over.
- You could pay for the U.S. wars since 9/11. It’s estimated that all the wars we’ve engaged in since 9/11 has been between $3-$6 trillion.
- You could buy a fleet of F-35 fighter jets. The U.S. expects to build approx 2,400 of these in the next 10 years at a cost of $382 billion. With upkeep and maintenance it will be right at $1 trillion.
- You could buy 1.1 billion new Jetta Volkswagen’s
- You could feed, clothe, and educate every child in the world
- You could give every man, woman, and child in America $78,571
What would $27.5 trillion look like in time?
- If you spent $1 million per day since Jesus was born, you would not have spent a trillion dollars yet. Now multiply that x 27!
What does $27.5 trillion look like in physical money?
- If you were to stack $27.5 trillion in $1 bills, they would go from the earth to the moon and back almost 4 times!
Maybe by now, you’ve gotten the idea of just how much money we are talking about here. This all goes to show how well our housing market is doing. Between 2007 and 2011 our nation lost around $6.3 trillion in home values, but now we are back. In the last three years alone home values have risen in almost every major metropolitan area in the U.S.
So what are you waiting for? 2015 is going to be another great year to invest in a home. Let us help you find one!