The booming market of 2024 has created unprecedented wealth-building opportunities for professional and individual investors across the country.
To reveal which states are seeing the highest returns in their investment portfolios, we surveyed 3,000 Americans about their market gains over the past year.
Here’s what the data showed:
Key findings
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% yield
- New Hampshire – 19% return
- New Jersey – 19% return
- Pennsylvania – 19% yield
- South Carolina – 19% return
- Virginia – 19% yield
- Washington – 19% return
- Arizona – 18% return
- Iowa – 18% return
- Minnesota – 18% return
- Mississippi – 18% return
- Nebraska – 18% return
- North Carolina – 18% yield
- Ohio – 18% return
- Kentucky – 17% return
- Michigan – 17% return
- North Dakota – 17% return
- Arkansas – 16% return
- Indiana – 16% return
- Maine – 16% yield
- Maryland – 16% return
- Utah – 16% return
- Wyoming – 16% return
- Kansas – 14% return
- Wisconsin – 14% yield
Promote portfolio growth
In 2024, individual stocks emerged as the backbone of people’s investing success last year, contributing a whopping 34% to portfolio gains.
The cryptocurrency followed suit with a 23% increase, indicating its importance in today’s diverse investment strategies.
Meanwhile, fixed income assets and ETFs/mutual funds also contributed to the growth, accounting for 19% and 15% of returns, respectively.
This combination emphasizes the importance of balancing growth-oriented investments with stability-focused investments.
Forecast for 2025
Investor confidence heading into 2025 reflects varying levels of optimism shaped by regional economic performance.
Hawaii leads the nation with an excellent optimism score of 9/10, riding the wave of its highest revenue in 2024.
In contrast, Alaska’s more cautious rating of 6/10 highlights the tempered outlook for states that saw more modest revenue growth over the past year.
Overall, the national optimism average of 6/10 indicates cautious hope amid potential future economic challenges and uncertainties.
Strategic use of gains
Investors in 2024 have adopted practical methods for their returns:
- 35% was reinvested in their portfolio to support continued growth
- 26% focused on reducing debt
- 24% have built emergency funds
- 15% pursued personal goals (e.g. vacation, home improvements).
Preparing for the road ahead
The investment community is closely monitoring emerging threats, with 35% of investors citing rising interest rates and inflation as top concerns.
In addition, global economic uncertainties (27%) and market volatility (24%) remain key challenges.
These concerns reflect the complex financial landscape that continues to shape strategies and sentiment through 2025.
Bottom line
While optimism for 2025 varies between regions, with Hawaii leading in confidence and Alaska showing caution, the national outlook reflects feelings of caution and hope.
The smart approach moving into the new year is to mix growth-focused investments with stable investments.
This will allow investors to continue to experience portfolio gains, while at the same time helping them build a shield against market volatility and inflation.
