2 posts on "Joelle W. Scally"
May 12, 2026
Federal Student Loan Defaults Return After Pandemic Pause
During 2026:Q1, household debt balances increased slightly, by $18 billion, to reach $18.8 trillion, according to the latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit from the New York Fed’s Center for Microeconomic Data. Amid upticks in mortgage, HELOC, and auto balances and a seasonal decline in credit card balances, student loan balances remained unchanged. However, the share of student loan balances past due increased, nearing pre-pandemic levels at just over 10 percent. In this post, we focus on which borrowers entered default on their federal student loans over the past two quarters. We find that the average borrower entering default is nearly 40 years old, was not past due on their student loans prior to the pandemic, and is more likely to live in the South. While defaulted borrowers are more likely to be past due on other forms of debt, the overall scope of student loan defaults is still relatively low, suggesting that fears of broader contagion to other credit products are premature.
Posted at 11:00 am in Student Loans | Permalink
February 10, 2026
Where Are Mortgage Delinquencies Rising the Most?
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data recently released its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for the fourth quarter of 2025, revealing continued growth in household debt balances. Aggregate household debt balances rose by $191 billion to reach $18.8 trillion, marking a $4.6 trillion increase since the end of 2019. Mortgage balances grew by $98 billion to $13.2 trillion, while credit card debt increased by $44 billion to $1.28 trillion. Credit card and auto loan delinquency rates appear to have stabilized, albeit at elevated rates. By contrast, the delinquency rate for mortgages—although still near low levels on a longer-term basis—has been steadily increasing over the past few years. Underlying these aggregate figures, however, there are notable differences in mortgage credit performance across places with different income levels and labor and housing market dynamics. This analysis, as well as the Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, are based on anonymous credit report data from Equifax.
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