The article is behind a paywall so I'm going to cut and paste it. Maybe I'm reading the article wrong but it looks like what they're saying is that the white only economy is big enough that 1 out of 7 households could have wealth of 1million if the money was evenly distributed but that figure is skewed because of the ultra-wealthy 1%. It looks that 1 of 7 is derived from the average, which is skewed because of the rich. I don't know if I'm saying this correctly but it averages out to 1 out of 7 but that not what it actually is. Again, the Bill Gates scenario would be appropriate.
The accumulation of white wealth looks set to continue. The average white household, worth about $930,000 in 2016, will accumulate a net worth of more than $1 million by the time the next triennial survey comes out in 2020, Hamilton said.
(The reported average is skewed by wealthy outliers. The median white household was worth $171,000 in 2016.)
White families vastly outperform African Americans and Hispanics in several key indicators of wealth: homeownership and equity, investments, and inheritance.
White families have nearly 10 times the net worth of black families. And the gap is growing.
Much of the growth in white wealth during the past two decades comes from the doubling of financial assets, including stocks and bonds, as well as pensions and retirement accounts, according to a Washington Post analysis of Fed data. Equity in their primary residences as well as equity in nonfinancial assets such as second homes and other real estate, boats, cars and jewels grew as well, but not as significantly.
White families are twice as likely as black and Hispanic families to own stocks or mutual funds. Sixty percent of white families invest in the stock market, while less than one-third of black and Hispanic families have any exposure to the stock market, according to Fed data.
Among American households invested in the market, the median value of white-owned investments rose to $50,000 in 2016, indicating a recovery from the Great Recession. The median value of black-owned and Hispanic-owned investments also rose but remained below 2007 values, at about $12,000. All numbers have been adjusted for inflation.
When it comes to homeownership, often the largest component of wealth for American families, nearly three-quarters of white families own their homes, compared with less than half of black and Hispanic families.
Even among homeowners, minority-owned homes had lower values, in part because of racist practices such as redlining that prohibited them from buying residences in many white neighborhoods.
“If you are a black homeowner, you are more likely to have a lower value on your home because of neighborhood segregation,” said Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity, and the economy. “Blacks couldn’t purchase in white communities where values were rising faster.”
The average housing wealth for white families was more than twice that of black and Hispanic families in 2016.
White families are more likely to trade up to pricier homes over time, whereas black families are more likely to lose their homes or stay in the same house for a lifetime, said Brendan O’Flaherty, a Columbia University economist who studies the economics of race.
“The idea of a starter house is predominantly a white phenomenon,” O’Flaherty said.
Black and Hispanic families are also much less likely to inherit wealth than their white counterparts. One-quarter of white households reported receiving an inheritance, compared with 8 percent of blacks and 5 percent of Hispanics.
The Republican tax plan, released last week, could further widen the country’s gaping economic divide, delivering major gains for
the richest 1 percent of Americans, according to an analysis by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a leading group of nonpartisan experts.
“The racial disparities in wealth, which is the paramount indicator of economic opportunity, security and overall well being, remain stark,” Hamilton said. “And if the Trump tax plan, which includes the elimination of the estate tax, is made into law, it will only get even larger.”
Ted Mellnik contributed to this report.