Who wants to be a millionaire?

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The UBS Global Wealth Report suggests that the world has more moderate millionaires than ever. The number of people with USD 1 million to USD5 million in net wealth has grown rapidly. Two related factors drive this.
For most people the family home is the most important asset they own. House prices across the 26 countries monitored by the US Dallas Federal Reserve rose 146% this century. That surge pushed multiple households into the millionaire category. This year’s weaker dollar will further swell the dollar value of European and UK housing in 2025, creating more dollar millionaires.
For some countries, the growth in dollar millionaire numbers outpaced the growth in the dollar value of housing assets. One reason is that as populations age, homeowners repay their mortgages. As millionaire measurement uses debt-free property values, repaying mortgages increases millionaire numbers.
Popular culture still thinks of millionaires in terms of Scrooge McDuck or the top-hatted icon of “Monopoly”. But rising house prices create modest millionaires, whose disposable incomes have grown at a slower pace. The new dollar millionaires have broken a psychological wealth threshold, but their income and spending is that of middle class households. To spend like a stereotypical millionaire probably requires wealth in the next bracket, from USD 5 million to USD 10 million.