Economics

U.S. Household Debt Reaches Yet Another Record on Home Loans

Mortgage debt approached $10 trillion in first quarter
Black families at greatest economic risk from current downturn

People wearing protective masks wait in line outside a store in Orleans, Massachusetts.Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg

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By Alexandre Tanzi and Shahien Nasiripour

May 5, 2020 at 3:56 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Americans increased their borrowing for the 23rd straight quarter to a total of $14.3 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the latest snapshot of household balance sheets entering what many experts believe to be a recession.

Total U.S. household debt rose by $155 billion in the first quarter from the previous three-month period, or 1.1%, the New York Fed’s quarterly report showed. Overall household debt is now 28.2% above the second-quarter 2013 trough.