Overview
- Household debt rose by $191 billion in Q4 2025 to a record $18.8 trillion, with mortgages at $13.2 trillion and credit card balances up $44 billion to $1.28 trillion.
- Mortgage performance remains strong by long‑run standards, yet flows into serious delinquency reached 1.4% in Q4 2025 versus 1.09% a year earlier, with about 1.3% of balances becoming seriously delinquent over 2025.
- New delinquencies are concentrated in lower‑income ZIP codes, where 90+ day mortgage delinquency rates climbed from roughly 0.5% in 2021 to nearly 3% by late 2025.
- Local conditions matter: counties with the sharpest unemployment increases saw mortgage delinquency flows rise by about 0.6 percentage points over the past year, and areas with falling home prices also show higher delinquency rates.
- Overall, 4.8% of loans were in some form of trouble in Q4, non‑mortgage delinquencies have leveled off at elevated rates, and student loans remain most strained with 9.6% 90+ days delinquent and a 16.2% quarterly flow into serious delinquency; a proposed one‑year 10% cap on credit card rates is drawing limited support in early polling.