US Household Debt Surpasses $16 Trillion

Yahoo/Bloomberg headline: US Household Debt Surpasses $16 Trillion on Higher Mortgages

Alex Tanzi
Tue, August 2, 2022 at 11:00 AM·2 min read

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-household-debt-surpasses-1…

(Bloomberg) – US household debt increased by 2% to $16.2 trillion in the second quarter, with mortgages, auto loans and credit-card balances all seeing sizable increases, according to a report by the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

The increase in borrowing, which equals to $312 billion over three months, reflected in part higher prices for homes and cars. Americans also are putting more on their credit cards to cover rising costs amid decades-high inflation.

The main driver was mortgage debt, which accounted for two-thirds of the rise last quarter. And the 13% jump in credit-card debt year-over-year was the sharpest gain in more than 20 years, the New York Fed said in its quarterly report on household debt and credit.

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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-household-debt-surpasses-1…

Consumers added a record $100 billion in credit-card debt over the last year. But in aggregate, consumers still have plenty of room to spend with another $3.33 trillion in available credit on their cards.

Since the pandemic started, about 42 million new credit card accounts have been opened, and consumers now hold more than 750 million auto-loan, credit-card, mortgage, and home-equity lines of credit. Overall, consumers ages 30 to 59 have record levels of debt.

Overall, about $435 billion of the $16.2 trillion in debt is delinquent, and $294 billion is seriously delinquent, meaning that its at least 90 days late.