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America's favorite investment is not what you think

Daniel de ViséUSA TODAYJune 30, 2026, 5:06 a.m. ETHear this storyGallup runs an annual poll to determine America’s most popular long-term investment.

In nearly two decades of polling, Americans have never picked stocks.

Financial experts routinely pick the stock market as the best investment choice for long-term gains. In the 40 years through 2025, Fidelity reports, the S&P 500 has delivered an average return of 11.5% per year.

And yet, when Gallup has asked Americans to name “the best long-term investment” in periodic polls, stocks have never come out on top.

In a 2026 poll, when respondents were asked to choose among six “best” long-term investments, the top answer, by a wide margin, was real estate. Here’s the breakdown:

• Real estate, 38% 
• Stocks/mutual funds, 20% 
• Gold, 18% 
• Savings accounts/CDs, 12% 
• Bonds, 4% 
• Cryptocurrency, 2%

Gallup has asked the same question, more or less, every year since 2007. Real estate has led the survey every year since 2013.

Before 2013, however, investors gave very different answers.

America's favorite investment has changed over time

In 2008, as the Great Recession descended, Americans picked the humble savings account (and the certificate of deposit) as their favorite long-term investment in Gallup polls.

Neither stocks nor homes looked like very safe investments in 2008. The S&P 500 lost nearly 40% of its value that year, as the housing market collapsed.

“During the Great Recession, nothing was performing well, and that’s why savings accounts won,” said Matt Frankel, a certified financial planner at The Motley Fool.

In 2011, Gallup added gold to the survey as an investment choice. Gold won the “best investment” contest in that year and the next.

Investors have a love-hate relationship with stocks

Investment experts say the survey results prove, more than anything, that American investors don’t entirely trust the stock market.

“Investors had a very poor experience in stocks in the 2007 to 2009 period,” said Christine Benz, director of personal finance and retirement planning at Morningstar. “It’s difficult to like stocks, at times.”

More recently, experts say, the Gallup survey illustrates America’s love for homes.

Compared with mercurial stocks, real estate feels like a stable investment. Home prices dropped dramatically in the Great Recession, but that dip was an anomaly. Over the past several decades, home prices have trended mostly higher.

“Real estate has historically gone up almost every year,” Frankel said. “There are very few times in history when real estate has gone backwards.”

When it comes to long-term investments, however, safer doesn’t always mean better.

What's the best long-term investment?

If there is a correct answer to the Gallup poll question, according to Frankel, Benz and other investment experts, it’s stocks.

Over the past 30 years, stock prices have risen at four times the pace of home prices, according to a Motley Fool analysis.

“The best long-term investment, without question, is the stock market,” said Caleb Silver, editor in chief of Investopedia.

Here’s another way to compare stocks and real estate as investments: From 1992 and 2024, the S&P yielded an average return of 10.4% a year, according to Investopedia. In the same years, home prices grew by about 5.5% annually.

“It’s surprising to me that stocks aren’t a more consistent favorite” in the Gallup poll, Benz said. “Because, based on the data, stocks beat all these other asset classes hands-down.”

Why do Americans love real estate as an investment?

Why, then, have Americans consistently picked real estate as the “best” investment in the Gallup poll?

Here’s one reason: Americans are more likely to own homes than stocks.

Roughly two-thirds of American households own their primary residence, according to the Federal Survey of Consumer Finances from 2022, the most recent edition. By contrast, only 21% of households own “directly held” stocks, with shares in their own name.

Real estate “is the investment that the most survey respondents understand,” Frankel said.

For many Americans, a home functions somewhat like a savings account. When you buy a home with a mortgage, you enter a yearslong cycle of building equity with your mortgage payments and the gradual appreciation of the home’s value. Homeownership has helped millions of Americans achieve the American dream.

A home feels like a safe investment. So do savings accounts, CDs and gold, the asset classes that topped the Gallup poll at times in the Great Recession era.

“Older generations traditionally feel like gold and real estate are better investments than the stock market, because they have lived through stock market crashes and watched their wealth evaporate,” Silver said.

How does gold rate as a long-term investment?

Lately, gold has looked like a great investment. At one point in early 2026, the price of gold was up roughly 75% over one year and 200% over five years. Gold was outperforming stocks.

Gold has shed value since, and the recent runup is atypical. Adjusted for inflation, gold was worth about as much in late 2024 as in early 1980.

Is gold the best long-term investment? Probably not, investment experts say. It functions better as a small part of a diversified portfolio.

“A little bit of gold can actually help diversify. So, it’s worth looking at,” Benz said. “But I think investors should avoid these either/or scenarios.”

Are savings accounts and CDs a good long-term investment?

Investment experts generally recommend savings accounts and CDs only for investors who have very little risk tolerance, or who are looking for ways to hedge against the volatility of stocks.

Many of the best high-yield savings accounts and CDs carry annual interest rates around 4%. That means your money will just about keep pace with the current annual inflation rate of 4.2%.