The U.S. real estate market is often depicted these days as a place where the dreams of first-time homebuyers go to die. But it can be easy to forget (or ignore) just how positive an impact homeownership has on Americans lucky enough to survive the gauntlet. Thanks to escalating home prices, approximately 46 million homeowners were sitting on a record $7.3 trillion in equity at the end of 2020, according to mortgage technology and data provider Black Knight. That works out to an average $158,000 in equity per homeowner.