The American dream means different things to different people. For many, it’s an expectation that they will achieve or better the economic strength that their parents had.

For many, it’s owning a home. It’s having a financial buffer. It’s family vacations. It’s being able to afford a car every several years.

2024 was a good year for most with money in the stock market. The S&P 500 rose more than 23% in 2024, about the same as it did in 2023. An economic downturn that many felt would bring down stock market gains did not come.

2024 was a good year for many homeowners in Bend. The median housing price was $835,000 in November, trending up year over year.

What about everybody else? How good was 2024 for them?

Many Americans do own stock, because of the proliferation of 401(k) retirement programs, individual retirement accounts and more. About 54% had such plans in 2022. But only about 21% of Americans own stock directly, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Similarly, only about 64% of Oregonians own homes.

Overall in the country, the core consumer price index, which does not include food and energy, was at 3.3% in November. If you add in food and energy, it was at 2.7%. Oregon is also a relatively high cost state to live in. And although Oregon is a relatively high wage state compared to the rest of the country, those high costs of living eat into the wages. We were not able to find Oregon wage data for 2024. Such numbers tend to lag. But in 2023, “the annual average wage was down around -1.2% (-$817 annually) from 2022 after adjusting for inflation,” Oregon’s business economist reported last year.

So if somebody has already been able to buy a home in Oregon, if they hold stocks, maybe 2024 was still a pretty good financial year. For other Oregonians, for young families, the dream of owning a home can seem to be slipping. A home, for most families, is their biggest source of wealth. And 2024 didn’t make it more likely that many Oregonians would have one.

There were many great things about 2024. The home economics weren’t one of them.