Americans had more outstanding auto-loan debt in 2018—1.27 trillion dollars in total—than at any point in the preceding 19 years. This conclusion comes…
Americans had more outstanding auto-loan debt in 2018—1.27 trillion dollars in total—than at any point in the preceding 19 years.
This conclusion comes from researchers at the New York Federal Reserve, who analyzed data from the Fed’s Consumer Credit Panel, a survey of Americans’ debt based on proprietary information from the consumer credit rating bureau Equifax.
The New York Fed also finds that there are some seven million loans with auto-loans more than ninety days delinquent, a million more than there were at the end of 2010, when delinquencies were last at their worst.
The Fed report emphasized that the majority of new auto loans issued in 2018 were taken up by creditworthy individuals, meaning those with a credit score above 720.30 percent of the overall pool was composed of individuals with scores over 760; by contrast, those who were ranked as “subprime” constituted just 22 percent.
