US Household Debt Shatters $18,040,000,000,000 As Delinquency Rates Surge, According To Federal Reserve Bank of New York

The total amount of household debt in the US has surged to a new record level.

In its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, the New York Fed says total household debt hit a 21-year high of $18.04 trillion at the end of Q4 2024.

That’s an increase of $93 billion on a quarter-on-quarter basis and a $3.9 trillion surge since the end of 2019.

Mortgages make up the bulk of US household debt, standing at $13 trillion by the end of December last year.

Auto loans hover at $1.66 trillion, followed by student loans at $1.61 trillion, credit cards at $1.21 trillion and others at $550 billion.

The New York Fed’s data also shows that Americans are struggling to pay off their credit card and other types of debt.

Delinquency rates are on the rise with 11.4% of credit card balances having been left unpaid for at least 90 days as of Q4 2024, up from 9.4% over the same quarter in 2023. For other types of loans, 9.2% are delinquent for 90 days or more.

Meanwhile, 4.8% of auto loans, 0.7% of mortgages, 0.5% of student loans and 0.5% of home equity line of credit (HELOC) are delinquent for more than three months over the same period.

“Aggregate delinquency rates increased slightly in the fourth quarter of 2024. As of December, 3.6 percent of outstanding debt was in some stage of delinquency, up from 3.5 percent in the third quarter… Transition into serious delinquency, defined as 90 or more days past due, edged up for auto loans, credit cards, and HELOC balances but remained stable for mortgages.”

Amid the surging delinquency rates, the Fed says that around 123,000 Americans had a bankruptcy notation added to their credit reports in the last quarter of 2024.

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