While the recession and housing slump saw wealth decreased by $7 trillion between 2006 and 2009, the value of homeowners’ real estate equity has more than doubled since 2009 according to a recent Federal Reserve report.

Moreover, housing wealth is proving to be a nice counter-balance against recent stock-market volatility as home equity has increased by 22 percent compared with a 11 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

The number of homeowners with at least 20 percent equity continues to rise at a rapid pace and analysts predict that housing wealth could reach a new high as early as the second quarter of this year.