Key facts
- The New York Fed said 5% of loan balances were in some form of trouble in the third quarter of 2026.
- Total household debt rose 1.8%, or $334 billion, to $19.1 trillion from the second quarter.
- Mortgage balances rose $257 billion to $13.4 trillion, the largest part of household debt.
- Student loans more than 90 days past due rose to 10.9% of sector borrowing from 10.6%.
- Donghoon Lee of the New York Fed said overall credit quality of housing debt remains strong.
The share of US loan balances in some form of trouble stood at 5% in the third quarter of 2026, up 0.3 percentage point from the second quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit on November 10, 2026. The bank said the level remained consistent with conditions before the COVID-19 pandemic and well below the levels seen during the financial crisis nearly 20 years earlier.
Total household debt rose 1.8%, or $334 billion, to $19.1 trillion in the quarter. Mortgages accounted for the largest part, rising $257 billion to $13.4 trillion on new home-related borrowing. Credit card balances rose $22 billion to $1.3 trillion and auto loans rose $21 billion to $1.7 trillion.
The New York Fed said transitions into early delinquency rose for mortgages and auto loans, while transitions into serious delinquency improved for credit cards and student loans. It said the shift of mortgage debt into serious delinquency remained "low by historical standards".
"Although delinquency transition rates for housing debts have crept up, the overall credit quality of these loans remains strong," Donghoon Lee, Economic Research Advisor at the New York Fed, said in a press release.
Student loans more than 90 days past due stood at 10.9% of borrowing in the sector, up from 10.6% in the second quarter, a figure the bank linked to the resumption of payments after a pandemic-era pause. In a separate blog post, Lee wrote that credit card delinquency rates "rose sharply" between 2022 and 2024, with lower income neighborhoods hit hardest, and that newer credit card delinquencies would likely keep improving absent macroeconomic shocks.