#AIS: Divvy Homes CEO Adena Hefets breaks down the state of the US housing market

The speaker introduces herself as Adina, CEO of Divvy Homes, and says her interests sit where finance, housing and inequality meet. She leaves what her company does for the end of the talk and starts with a personal story: her mother, on a backpacking trip in Israel in the 1980s, was picked up by a hitchhiking ride, fell in love with the driver and became pregnant. He became her father.

The young couple, aged 21 and 24 by her account, returned to the US and could not get a mortgage. A woman gave them seller financing, they raised four children in the house, and later a mortgage let them take cash out to pay for all four to attend college. She calls this the heart of the American dream, giving your children a better life than your own, and says the talk is about why that dream has slipped away for many Americans.

She promises one simple chart per slide and a clear takeaway: wealth inequality is rising across America. By her figures, the top 10% of households hold 76% of wealth and the next 40% hold 23%, so the top half holds 99% and the bottom half about 1%. These are her figures as presented on the slide, not independently checked here.

A second chart compares household wealth by income percentile in 1963 with today. She says the top 1% averaged about $2 million then and about $10 million now, a fivefold rise, while the bottom half has seen almost no change.

Asking whether the gap comes from higher pay, she grants some salary differences but argues the main driver is appreciation of, and access to, assets. She uses the word loosely: stocks, housing, small businesses and direct investments all count. Her 20-year comparison says household income has barely appreciated, while the S&P 500 and an owned home have each risen by more than 100%.

She then stresses home leverage. In her telling, a homeowner can borrow up to 80% against the home at a cost of capital that has been close to 3%, with the debt backed by the government, and is forced to amortize, which builds savings. A house also has dual utility, since you can live in it but not in the S&P 500. Her conclusion is that those who own assets are more likely to have higher net worth.