Household Debt Climbs to $18.8T as Delinquencies Hit Multi-Year High: NY Fed

U.S. household debt continued to climb at the end of 2025, while signs of consumer stress intensified beneath the surface. Total household liabilities rose by $191 billion in the fourth quarter to a record $18.8 trillion, according to the latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 

Aggregate delinquency rates worsened meaningfully, with 4.8% of outstanding debt now in some stage of delinquency—up 0.3 percentage points from the prior quarter and the highest level in nearly a decade. Housing remained the primary driver of debt growth. Mortgage balances increased by $98 billion in Q4 to $13.17 trillion, while home equity lines of credit posted their 15th consecutive quarterly increase, rising $12 billion to $433 billion. The New York Fed also reported roughly 58,000 new foreclosure notations, up from the previous quarter. 

Consumer credit expanded sharply. Credit card balances rose $44 billion in Q4 to $1.28 trillion outstanding, up 5.5% year over year. Auto loan balances increased by $12 billion to $1.67 trillion, though new auto originations dipped modestly. Student loans remained a pressure point, with $1.66 trillion outstanding and a delinquency rate of 9.6% for balances more than 90 days past due, reflecting ongoing normalization after pandemic-era forbearance. Roughly one million borrowers more than 120 days delinquent were transferred to the Department of Education’s Default Resolution Group. 

New lending activity sent mixed signals. Mortgage originations edged higher to $524 billion from $512 billion in Q3, with credit quality holding firm—median credit scores for new mortgages remained elevated at 775. Auto lending standards loosened slightly, with median borrower scores slipping from 724 to 716. 

There were modest areas of improvement. Bankruptcy filings declined to 124,000 from 141,000 in the prior quarter, and the share of consumers with third-party collection accounts fell to 4.6% from 4.9%. Still, the broader data point to a consumer sector increasingly reliant on credit—and increasingly strained as delinquencies mount.