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Markets · November 10, 2026 · 2 min read

New York Fed: household debt rises to $19.1 trillion as delinquency measures diverge

By Econ Data Tools Editorial Team

Published November 10, 2026 • Updated November 10, 2026

Q3 debt grew $334 billion. The share of debt already delinquent rose to5.0%, but transitions into serious delinquency improved for credit cards and student loans rather than worsening across every category.

Total U.S. household debt rose by $334 billion, or 1.8%, in the third quarter of 2026 to $19.105 trillion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported on November 10. Its Household Debt and Credit Report describes balances at the end of September, not a measure of borrowing on the publication day. Mortgage debt increased by $257 billion to $13.374 trillion. Home equity lines of credit grew by $23 billion to $481 billion, the largest quarterly increase in those balances observed since 2005. The New York Fed reported $595 billion of newly originated mortgage debt in the quarter; originations are a flow of new loans, not the same measure as the outstanding balance. Credit card balances rose by $22 billion to $1.285 trillion, while auto balances increased by $21 billion to $1.734 trillion. Student debt increased by $5 billion to $1.656 trillion. The report also lists $208 billion of new auto loans appearing on credit reports. These nominal balances do not, by themselves, identify how much borrowing reflects prices, purchases or changes in repayment. The share of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency rose to 5.0%, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous quarter. That stock measure should not be confused with the rate at which previously current or less-delinquent balances newly fall behind. A higher total delinquent share can coexist with improvement in some transition rates. Transitions into early delinquency increased for auto loans and mortgages but improved slightly for credit cards. Transitions into serious delinquency improved slightly for credit cards and student loans, were flat for auto loans and HELOCs, and worsened for mortgages while remaining low by historical standards. The release defines serious-delinquency flows as annualized shares of eligible balances newly becoming at least 90 days late. The report uses the New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample drawn from anonymized Equifax credit data. It is a quarterly credit-report snapshot, not a survey of every household's income or total wealth. The release does not establish that the debt increase caused a Treasury-market move or predicts a particular Federal Reserve decision.

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