Herb Scribner

Deseret News Hive

The United States added 700,000 new millionaire households in 2017, according to a new report from the Spectrem Group.

The U.S. now has close to 11 million millionaires, up 6 percent from 2016, according to data from the Spectrum Group’s Market Insights Report 2018.

The report also found that there were 172,000 households with a net worth higher than $25 million.

The jump in millionaires came from rising stock prices and increased housing prices, the report said.

Spectrem defines a millionaire as someone who has at least $1 million in investable assets, not including their primary residence.

"It was the equity markets that really pulled these folks up," George Walper, president of Spectrem Group, said, according to a new report from CNBC. "This is the group that has the most equity holdings, so the biggest change is at the high end.”

Last year, the report found there were more millionaires than ever before as close to 10.8 million people became a millionaire in 2016, according to Entrepreneur.

The number of millionaires has doubled since 2009, when there were 6 million millionaire households.

Before the housing crisis, there were roughly 9 million millionaires, CNBC reported.

Walper said he expects more millionaires to come in the near future, according to CNBC.

"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."