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And as anyone who has tried to buy a home in a major Canadian city in the past few years will tell you, the sustained housing boom and surging Canadian dollar have produced some very lofty housing prices relative to much of the developed world. This divide is especially stark when considering the U.S. real estate implosion following the subprime crisis and subsequent recession that wiped out substantial wealth in the United States.

“There’s a much greater concentration of wealth in a tangible asset, like a house, in Canada,” Mr. Marion said. “You may own the property as an asset, but there’s no cash flow.”

And with 40% of Canadian homeowners owning their home outright with no mortgage, it is no surprise that there is substantial wealth locked into property, he added.

Not too liquid, eh?

“Look, unless you want to live in a cave, or move to another country, you can’t really spend any of that wealth,” said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist with CIBC World Markets.

Good idea. Time to sell your house and take your mighty loonies to one of those poor loafer countries like Germany. Maybe buy a nice castle on the Rhine and push around your lederhosen-clad servants?

Not quite. Our rich might be legion, but they’re just not all that rich.

While there is a greater proportion of millionaires in Canada than any other major economy, the average millionaire household has assets of about US$1.9-million. This is pretty middle-of-the-pack compared with the United States at US$3.7-million and Switzerland, which tops the list of all counties with US$4.2-million per millionaire household.