2024's booming market has created unprecedented wealth-building opportunities for professional and retail investors all across the nation.
To uncover which states are seeing the highest returns in their portfolios, we surveyed 3,000 Americans about their market gains this past year.
Here's what the data showed:
Key Findings
The states with the biggest gains, ranked from highest to lowest:
- Hawaii - 32% return
- Alaska - 26% return
- New York - 24% return
- South Dakota - 24% return
- Louisiana - 23% return
- Oklahoma - 23% return
- Idaho - 22% return
- New Mexico - 22% return
- Tennessee - 22% return
- California - 21% return
- Connecticut - 21% return
- Delaware - 21% return
- Florida - 21% return
- Illinois - 21% return
- Oregon - 21% return
- Texas - 21% return
- West Virginia - 21% return
- Alabama - 20% return
- Colorado - 20% return
- Montana - 20% return
- Nevada - 20% return
- Rhode Island - 20% return
- Vermont - 20% return
- Georgia - 19% return
- Massachusetts - 19% return
- Missouri - 19% return
- New Hampshire - 19% return
- New Jersey - 19% return
- Pennsylvania - 19% return
- South Carolina - 19% return
- Virginia - 19% return
- Washington - 19% return
- Arizona - 18% return
- Iowa - 18% return
- Minnesota - 18% return
- Mississippi - 18% return
- Nebraska - 18% return
- North Carolina - 18% return
- Ohio - 18% return
- Kentucky - 17% return
- Michigan - 17% return
- North Dakota - 17% return
- Arkansas - 16% return
- Indiana - 16% return
- Maine - 16% return
- Maryland - 16% return
- Utah - 16% return
- Wyoming - 16% return
- Kansas - 14% return
- Wisconsin - 14% return
Powering Portfolio Growth
In 2024, individual stocks emerged as the backbone of people’s investment success this past year, contributing a substantial 34% to portfolio gains.
Cryptocurrency followed suit with 23%, indicating its importance in today’s diversified investment strategies.
Meanwhile, fixed-income assets and ETFs/mutual funds contributed to growth as well, accounting for 19% and 15% of returns, respectively.
This combination underscores the importance of balancing growth-oriented investments with stability-focused ones.
Outlook for 2025
Investor confidence heading into 2025 reflects varying levels of optimism shaped by regional economic performance.
Hawaii leads the nation with a stellar 9/10 optimism score, riding the wave of its top-tier 2024 returns.
In contrast, Alaska's more cautious 6/10 rating highlights the tempered expectations of states that have seen more modest growth in returns this past year.
Overall, the national optimism average of 6/10 suggests cautious hope amid potential future economic challenges and uncertainties.
Strategic Use of Gains
Investors in 2024 adopted pragmatic approaches to their returns:
- 35% reinvested in their portfolio to fuel ongoing growth
- 26% focused on debt reduction
- 24% built emergency funds
- 15% pursued personal goals (e.g., vacation, home improvements).
Preparing for the Road Ahead
The investment community is keeping a close eye on emerging threats, with rising interest rates and inflation cited by 35% of investors as top concerns.
Additionally, global economic uncertainties (27%) and market volatility (24%) remain key challenges.
These anxieties reflect the complex financial landscape that continues to shape strategies and sentiment heading into 2025.
Bottom Line
As optimism for 2025 varies across regions, with Hawaii leading in confidence and Alaska showing caution, the national outlook reflects a cautious yet hopeful sentiment.
The smart approach moving into the new year is to blend growth-focused investments with stable ones.
This will allow investors to continue to experience portfolio gains, while at the same time help them build a shield against market volatility and inflation.
