by Calculated Risk on 8/08/2023 11:13:00 AM

From the NY Fed: Total Household Debt Reaches $17.06 Trillion in Q2 2023; Credit Card Debt Exceeds $1 Trillion

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Center for Microeconomic Data today issued its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit. The report shows a slight uptick in total household debt in the second quarter of 2023, increasing by $16 billion (0.1%) to $17.06 trillion. The report is based on data from the New York Fed’s nationally representative Consumer Credit Panel.

Credit card balances increased by $45 billion, from $986 billion in Q1 2023 to a series high of $1.03 trillion in the Q2 2023, marking a 4.6% quarterly increase. Credit card accounts expanded by 5.48 million to 578.35 million. Aggregate limits on credit card accounts increased by $9 billion and now stand at $4.6 trillion.

Mortgage balances were largely unchanged from the previous quarter and stood at $12.01 trillion at the end of June, in large part due to declining mortgage originations and slowing home prices. Mortgage originations, which include refinances, stood at $393 billion in the second quarter, representing a $70 billion increase from the first quarter. Other balances, which include retail cards and other consumer loans, increased by $15 billion.

Auto loan balances rose by $20 billion, consistent with the upward trajectory seen since 2011. The volume of newly originated auto loans, which includes leases, was $179 billion, largely reflecting high dollar values of originated loans even as the number of newly opened loans remains below pre-pandemic levels. Student loan balances fell by $35 billion and stood at $1.57 trillion.

Delinquency rates were roughly flat in the second quarter of 2023 and remained low, after declining sharply since the beginning of the pandemic. The share of debt newly transitioning into delinquency increased for credit cards and auto loans, with increases in transition rates of 0.7 and 0.4 percentage points respectively.
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Click on graph for larger image.

Here are three graphs from the report:

The first graph shows household debt increased slightly in Q2.  Household debt previously peaked in 2008 and bottomed in Q3 2013. Unlike following the great recession, there wasn't a decline in debt during the pandemic.

From the NY Fed:

Aggregate household debt balances increased by $16 billion in the second quarter of 2023, a 0.1% rise from 2023Q1. Balances now stand at $17.06 trillion and have increased by $2.9 trillion since the end of 2019, just before the pandemic recession.

The second graph shows the percent of debt in delinquency.

The overall delinquency rate "roughly flat" in Q2.  From the NY Fed:

Aggregate delinquency rates were roughly flat in the second quarter of 2023 and remained low, after declining sharply through the beginning of the pandemic. As of June, 2.7% of outstanding debt was in some stage of delinquency, 2 percentage points lower than the last quarter of 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States.

The third graph shows Mortgage Originations by Credit Score.

From the NY Fed:

Mortgage originations, measured as appearances of new mortgages on consumer credit reports and including both refinance and purchase originations, were at $393 billion in 2023Q2, an uptick from the 9-year low observed in the previous quarter. ... The median credit score for newly originated mortgages increased by 4 points, to 769.

There is much more in the report.