Non-mortgage debt balances are declining in 2024

By Chris Horymski | StackerPeopleImages.com – Yuri A // Shutterstock(Stacker) – With the notable exception of mortgages, consumer debts are declining in 2024. This reverses a trend of larger borrowing balances among American consumers that goes back to the Great Recession.Non-mortgage debt includes the total balance of a consumer’s loans and lines of credit when their first and second mortgages are removed from consideration. That’s obviously a large carve-out: Mortgage balances exceed $250,000 on average in 2024, and collectively make up about two-thirds of the overall consumer loan balance of around $17 trillion, according to Experian data.But focusing on non-mortgage debt allows analysts and others to zoom in on the parts of a consumer’s financial life that change more often and apply to a broader cross section of the population. Only 40% of consumers are paying off a mortgage or other type of home loan in most given years, but around 85% have at least one credit card, and more than 62% have at least one auto loan.ExperianAverage Debt Balances, Excluding Mortgages, Fell in 2024In the face of a period of relatively higher rates of inflation, nationwide average loan balances (excluding mortgages) fell by 1.1% from the second quarter (Q2)...