Loans and Delinquency Rates Now
As for the present, there’s certainly a lot to see in the total level of debt to cause alarm. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data, total household debt rose in the first quarter of 2019 — the 19th-straight quarter of increases dating back to the Great Recession in 2013.
Perhaps most troubling, total household debt now sits at $13.67 trillion — about $1 trillion more than it was in Q3 of 2008 at the peak of the housing crisis.
But, that also has to be placed in the context of 36-straight quarters of delinquency rates on loans and leases at commercial banks either falling or holding steady, per the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
The impressive stretch started in the spring of 2010 and has seen the rate fall from just over 10% to 1.74%. So, while Americans have a lot more debt, they’re doing the best job at paying it back in nearly a decade.
