Household Borrowing in Historical Perspective
Do Credit Markets Watch the Waving Flag of Bankruptcy?
Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham explores how the lifting of bankruptcy flags affects borrowers’ credit scores and credit outcomes.
Just Released: 2017 SCE Housing Survey Finds Increased Optimism about Home Price Growth
Diplomas to Doorsteps: Education, Student Debt, and Homeownership
At the N.Y. Fed: Press Briefing on Household Borrowing with Close‑Up on Student Debt
An examination of recent developments in household borrowing was the focus of a press briefing held this morning at the New York Fed.
Being Up Front about the FHA’s Up‑Front Mortgage Insurance Premiums
When Debts Compete, Which Wins?
Just Released: Total Household Debt Nears 2008 Peak but Debt Picture Looks Much Different
The latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit from the New York Fed’s Center for Microeconomic Data showed a substantial increase in aggregate household debt balances in the fourth quarter of 2016 and for the year as a whole. As of December 31, 2016, total household debt stood at $12.58 trillion, an increase of $226 billion (or 1.8 percent) from the third quarter of 2016. Total household debt is now just 0.8 percent ($100 billion) below its third quarter 2008 peak of $12.68 trillion, and 12.8 percent above the second quarter 2013 trough. But debt looks very different in 2016 than it did the last time we saw this level of indebtedness.
The Homeownership Gap Is Finally Closing
Houses as ATMs No Longer
Housing equity is the primary form of collateral that households use for borrowing. This makes it a potentially important source of consumption funding, especially for younger households. In a previous post we showed that owner’s equity in residential real estate has finally, thanks to increasing home prices, rebounded to and essentially re-attained its 2005 peak level. Yet in spite of a gain of more than $7 trillion in housing equity since 2012, so far homeowners haven’t been tapping this equity at anything like the pace we witnessed during the housing boom that ended in 2006. In this post, we analyze the changes in equity withdrawal.