Category: Consumer Debt

Image of a house tipping over onto a dollar sign

The (Mortgage Refinancing) Party is Over

With a 1.5% increase in short-term interest rates in a three month period, the mortgage refinancing party is effectively over. Yet, total household debt (including mortgage loans) increased by $266 billion in the first quarter 2022. Balances, now at $15.84…

Can Consumer Loans Withstand Rate Rises?

We had hoped to have credit union data and star-ratings available this week, but the NCUA made so many changes to the reporting this quarter, the data didn’t come out until Tuesday (June 7th). So while our analysts comb over…

What Constitutes an Unconscionable Interest Rate?

After last week’s article on banks with high service fee income, we wanted to take a look at how some other banks make their money. Particularly after mentioning that Capital One is a credit card bank, we wanted to see…

Credit Card Debt Lessens as Quality Improves

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…

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…

hand holding several types of credit cards like a fan

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…

Shopping cart

Category: Consumer Debt

The (Mortgage Refinancing) Party is Over

Can Consumer Loans Withstand Rate Rises?

What Constitutes an Unconscionable Interest Rate?

Credit Card Debt Lessens as Quality Improves

Loan Balances Grow for 1st Time Since Last June

Consumer Loan Growth Bucks Trend at Some Banks

Cautious Consumers Cut Credit Card Consumption

Home Sales Up, But for How Long?

Consumers Focus on Paying Down Debt

Unemployment Begets Bad Debt

Stay Informed

Introduction

Category: Consumer Debt

Stay Informed