In Equifax’s article about consumer debt, they have analyzed the most recent data on U.S. consumer debt from the Federal Reserve and have found that 2024 is off to a bad start financially. The total U.S. consumer debt was $17.39 trillion in March 2024, an increase of 2.6% from March 2023.
Mortgage debt is most of American’s largest debt, exceeding other types by a wide margin. Student loans are the next largest type of debt among, followed closely by auto loans. The debt for mortgages including home equity loans were $12.65 trillion, a 72.8% share of total debt, while non-mortgage consumer debt totaled $4.73 trillion, with 34.6% of non-mortgage consumer debt attributable to auto loans and leases and 32.0% attributable to student loans.
Regarding auto loans and leases debt, the total balances owed were increased by 3.2% year over year to $1.64 trillion. March 2023 levels are similar to the number of outstanding accounts being 86.8 million.
Regarding credit card debt, the outstanding balances have gone up by 10.7% to reach $1.00 trillion year-over-year. The number of accounts that were still outstanding reached 548.1 million, a 3.3% increase from last year.
From all the debt analytics and research, we can surely confirm that our economy has had a major downfall from 2023 to 2024 in debt. We are now mid-year, so let’s hope for a better outcome to our financial crisis as the year comes to an end.