It’s nice to have something positive to report. U.S. banks have been reporting a steep decline in credit card usage since the end of 2019 (see below). Not only that, but as you will see, the quality of those credit…
Category: Consumer Debt
Loan Balances Grow for 1st Time Since Last June
After a year of belt-tightening, loan balances at our nation’s banks grew slightly ($33.2 billion or 0.3%) during the second quarter of 2021. In spite of banks’ eagerness to lend, loan balances remain well below (1.2%) the levels of the…
Consumer Loan Growth Bucks Trend at Some Banks
During the last nine months of 2020, many Americans took advantage of government stimulus and forbearance on mortgage loans to pay down (or off) personal debt. As a result, from March 31, 2020 to March 31, 2021 the banking industry…
Cautious Consumers Cut Credit Card Consumption
Since the pandemic began, not only are Americans cutting back on new credit card purchases, many consumers have been working to lower their balances. At the end of 2019, credit card balances at U.S. banks stood at over $941 billion.…
Home Sales Up, But for How Long?
Last week we reported that consumers are paying down their credit card debt. We also mentioned that mortgage debt and mortgage originations were on the rise. Today we are going to delve further into that phenomenon. Tim Ellis, a Senior…
Consumers Focus on Paying Down Debt
Housing takes, by far, the largest bite out of most consumers’ wallets, at least in this country. That’s followed by student debt, automobile loans and then, finally, credit card debt. And, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s…
Unemployment Begets Bad Debt
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, made some poignant remarks in a speech on Wednesday. What we found particularly disheartening was that: People who had a job in February and whose annual household income was less than $40,000 stood…
Debt and Delinquencies Up
Thanks to the New York Fed, we are getting our first glimpse into first quarter numbers, and it’s not a pretty sight. Household debt hit a new record at $14.3 trillion. That’s not a surprise; it’s been rising every quarter…
Shop Around for Student Loans
It Pays to Shop Around for Student Loans Topping the $1.5 trillion mark, student loan debt is now the second highest type of household debt (after mortgages) in the U.S. Along with the burgeoning growth of student debt is a…
Consumer Debt Reaches New High
Consumer Debt Reaches New Record High After five straight years of continued growth, U.S. consumer debt passed $14 trillion at the end of 2019, a new record high, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRB). Consumer debt…