'Beary Burry' Warns Of Multi-Year Bear Market As Stock Wealth Tops Real Estate

Michael Burry, the ‘Big Short’ investor famed for predicting the 2008 financial crisis, has issued a dire warning about the trajectory of the U.S. stock market. On Wednesday, Burry highlighted a rare shift in household wealth allocation—stocks overtaking real estate—suggesting it serves as a historic harbinger for a downturn that could last for years. The ‘Exhibit 12’ Signal Taking to X, Burry shared a chart titled “Exhibit 12,” sourced from Wells Fargo Securities and Bloomberg. The data tracks U.S. household allocations to equities versus real estate as a percentage of total net worth. The chart reveals that equity wealth has climbed significantly, recently surpassing real estate wealth. According to Burry, this specific crossover is a high-conviction danger signal that has not been seen in decades. This is a very interesting chart, as household stock wealth being higher than real estate wealth has only happened in the late 60s and late 90s, the last two times the ensuing bear market lasted years. Beary Burry pic.twitter.com/OqD3B7qGIl— Cassandra Unchained (@michaeljburry) December 17, 2025 See Also: Michael Burry Says The One Thing He Wished He Had Done Before 2008 Crisis Was To Have Been The Canary In The Mine: ‘People Wonder Why I Do This’ Echoes Of The 60s And 90s Burry's analysis relies on historical precedent. He pointed out that household stock wealth exceeding real estate wealth is an anomaly that previously occurred only in the “late 60s and late 90s.” The implications, according to the now de-registered Scion Asset Management founder, are severe. The late 1960s crossover preceded a decade of stagflation and poor real returns, while the late 1990s instance marked the peak of the Dot-Com bubble. “The last two times,” Burry noted in the post, “the ensuing bear market lasted years.” He signed off the prediction with the moniker, “Beary Burry.” How Have The Stocks Performed In 2025? The S&P 500 index has advanced 15.88% year-to-date, while the Dow Jones index has returned 13.50% and the Nasdaq Composite has gained 19.87% in the same period. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, closed mixed on Tuesday. The SPY was down 0.27% at $678.87, while the QQQ advanced 0.20% to $611.75, according to Benzinga Pro data. The futures of the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Dow Jones indices were trading lower on Wednesday. Read Next: Michael Burry Admits Missing The Biggest Short Squeeze In History— GameStop’s ‘Gamma Squeeze’ That Broke Wall Street Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Maxx-Studio on Shutterstock.com