Report: U.S. Gained 700,000 Millionaires in 2017

The United States gained 700,000 new millionaires in 2017 due to increases in stock prices and housing values, according to a report released Wednesday.

A report from the Spectrem Group, a firm specializing in providing research to investors, found that more than 11 million households in the U.S. are millionaires—an increase of more than six percent from 2016.

The group, defining millionaire households as those having at least $1 million in “investable assets,” claimed that the number of new millionaires and number of millionaires overall in the U.S. shattered records.

“It was the equity markets that really pulled these folks up,” George Walper, president of Spectrem Group, told CNBC. “This is the group that has the most equity holdings, so the biggest change is at the high end.”

The increase in the number of millionaires in the country largely reflects the country’s economic recovery since the financial crisis. Since 2009, the number of millionaire households almost doubled, growing from nearly six million households in that year to more than 11 million households.

Walper said he is optimistic that, barring a stock market crash this year, the number of millionaire households in the U.S. will continue to grow.

“I think people are pretty optimistic,” he said. “But a lot has to do with whether the Democrats take the House and whether we see changes in the tax law. But right now I could see a similar increase next year.”

So far, the GOP’s tax law has provided benefits to more American households than just millionaires, providing middle-income Americans the opportunity to be that much closer to achieving their goal of becoming millionaires.

Americans earning between $40,000 and $70,000 would see a 7.1 percent decrease in their taxes, while those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 would see their tax bills fall by 10.4 percent.