BROOKS JACKSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bobby Holton is a landscaper; wife Lindy is a corporate recruiter. Married less than a year, they've just made what a new study says is the best financial move possible: They've bought a house.</s>LINDY HOLTON, FIRST-TIME HOME BUYER: It's an investment. It's something that we own. It's not giving the money away and we never see it again.</s>JACKSON: The study, released by the Consumer Federation of America, maps out the road to affluence and eventual wealth in America, and that road still starts not with the stock market, but with buying a home.</s>STEVE BROBECK, CONSUMER FEDERATION OF AMERICA: For the broad middle class in America, the first thing that people should do to build wealth is buy a home, faithfully make the mortgage payments, don't borrow that accumulated home equity.</s>JACKSON: According to the study, about 4 percent of American households are millionaires, with net assets of $1 million or more, one household in every 25. And close to half of American households are affluent, having net assets of $100,000 or more, 42 percent, and affluent Americans get that way mainly through owning a home and saving for retirement. For those with between $100,000 and $250,000, 43 percent of their wealth is in the value of their primary residence, and another 17 percent in retirement accounts. Only 6 percent is in other stocks, bonds and mutual funds. For those making the first step, like the Holtons, right now is a particularly good time. They got a no money down deal on this $150,000 home, close to national median price. The cost of borrowing has seldom been lower.</s>BOBBY HOLTON, FIRST-TIME HOME BUYER: We got lucky enough that the interest rates were dropping and dropping pretty rapidly.</s>JACKSON: So if Regis Philbin is not available, the best way to start on the road to riches is still to save up a down payment. Brooks Jackson, CNN, Washington.
Homes Represent Large Amount of Personal Wealth