PA household debt situation better than US average (York, California: mortgage, credit)

[BrianTH]

The New York Fed has released a new website and a bunch of charts with quarterly consumer debt data:

US Credit Conditions - Federal Reserve Bank of New York

I thought these charts were particularly interesting:





PA had a lower total consumer debt per capita than the US, plus a number of other larger states too (although Texas and Ohio were a bit lower still, and Michigan about the same). The composition of debt was also interesting--obviously lower mortgage debt was the big difference, but compared to the US average we also had lower debt in most of the categories, except student loans (which may not be such a bad thing).

[PreservationPioneer]

I wish they made graphs like these for color-blind people.

[Katarina Witt]

The three states with some of the lowest housing prices in the country have the least debt (PA, TX, and MI, if I'm reading the colors correctly). Aside from mortgage debt, the rest is all about the same, with minor differences.

[Honest Bob]

The reason why it is cheaper to live in Pennsylvania in my opinion is due to the fact that the average age of a home is probably 30 to 40 years old, when you factor in all the old homes and all the new homes.

The level of income is not based on manufacturing due to the fact that the state has such a high population of retiree's living here and social security doesn't fluctuate with the stock market.

So as long as people gets their pension checks, and as long as people are in the business of taking care of old people and their money, the money keeps rolling in. Most older people knows the value of a dollar and they pinch their pennies and they save their money and they pay their bills and they live off their income.

In a boom town like Los Vegas where your income depends on people coming there with a disposable income and gambling and prostitution - when the economy sour's, the amount of income also goes down proportionally.

Places like California - where the cost of living is so high, no one can afford to retire or leave. Even the kids in McDonald's are making $11 a hour.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Katiana

The three states with some of the lowest housing prices in the country have the least debt (PA, TX, and MI, if I'm reading the colors correctly). Aside from mortgage debt, the rest is all about the same, with minor differences.

Yeah, it is not a mystery why some places have a lot less mortgage debt, which is the main driver of total debt.

There are some significant differences in individual other items, though, even if it all tends to more or less wash out. For example, Texas has very little revolving home equity debt, and I believe that is because they instituted some very strict regulations of home equity loans. On the other hand, they have a relatively high amount of auto loan debt, and I would speculate that is related, meaning lots of people who would have used home equity loans to buy cars if they were in other states may be using auto loans instead in Texas.