Total household debt has increased to $16.2 trillion in the second quarter of 2022, up $312 billion in the past three months and $2 trillion higher than at the end of 2019, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit.
The report is based on data from the New York Fed’s nationally representative Consumer Credit Panel, according to an agency press release Tuesday (Aug. 2).
Mortgage balances were up $207 billion in the second quarter and ended June at $11.4 trillion, while credit card balances rose $46 billion in the quarter, the largest year-over-year increase in credit card balances in more than two decades (13%), the release stated.
“The second quarter of 2022 showed robust increases in mortgage, auto loan, and credit card balances, driven in part by rising prices,” said New York Fed Administrator of the Center for Microeconomic Data Joelle Scally in the release. “While household balance sheets overall appear to be in a strong position, we are seeing rising delinquencies among subprime and low-income borrowers with rates approaching pre-pandemic levels.”
Meanwhile, auto loan balances increased by $33 billion in the second quarter, while student loan balances were about the same as in the first quarter ($1.6 trillion), according to the release. Other balances — including retail cards, consumer loans and more — increased $25 billion, with overall non-housing balances up $103 billion, the biggest jump since 2016.
Mortgage originations dropped slightly in the second quarter to $758 billion, while the volume of newly originated auto loans increased to $199 billion, continuing a trend that started in the third quarter of 2020. Aggregate limits on credit card accounts were up $100 billion to $4.2 trillion, the biggest increase in more than a decade, the release stated.
Last week, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that consumer spending climbed 1.1% in June with higher fuel and food costs amid 40-year record high inflation that is continuing to eat away at paychecks and household budgets. In May, consumer spending was up 0.2%.
Read more: Consumer Spending Surges as Inflation Eats Away at Household Budgets
