NEW YORK–Household debt in the U.S. was up 1.1% during the first quarter, due largely to increased mortgage borrowing, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The Fed Bank reported that the improved mortgage volume helped to offset a slowdown in borrowing via credit cards and new auto loans (even though auto loan debt is up).
Overall, total mortgage debt rose 1.5% from the final quarter of 2015 to $8.37 trillion, marking the highest level since the third quarter of 2011, according to the New York Fed’s quarterly report on household debt and credit. Auto loan debt rose to a record high of $1.07 trillion in data going back to 2003, but logged the smallest percentage increase since 2012, the Fed said.
“Delinquency rates and the overall quality of outstanding debt continue to improve,” Wilbert van der Klaauw, senior vice president at the New York Fed, said in a statement.
Fed data show that 5% of outstanding debt was in some stage of delinquency, the lowest amount since the second quarter of 2007.
Credit-card balances fell in the first quarter from the previous period, but were up 4.1% from a year earlier, according to the Fed. Student-loan debt rose to a record high of $1.26 trillion, but the 6.1% rise from a year earlier marked the slowest pace of growth on record in the data