Bay Area has most the most people with Great Credit

[jeffredo]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

/snip

What's up with all those Minnesota cities and towns with great credit and high savings? Thrifty Scandinavian types?

[Mr. Fantastic]

Originally Posted by NorCal44

However, I (and some of my friends) fit your last statement perfectly,

You and your friends might have a skewed definition of what "lots of credit means". Having a GAP card, and a visa card isn't a lot of potential credit.

[sliverbox]

Nest Egg Index-Cities with the most savings
In the third annual Nest Egg Index, we ranked the 500 top-performing communities based on their residents' personal savings and investing behavior. By measuring a dozen statistical factors - including participation in retirement savings plans, personal debt levels and home ownership

But then again look at the age demographics in places like San Jose, Sunnyvale, Boston, and all the other sort of older, established somewhat hoity-toity cities on the list: Almost all of them have a fairly high older resident population. Typically ranging from mid-30's to even upper 40's ( as in my Bay Area city). Compare that to say- cities like Atlanta, Austin, and other 2nd tier cities where the median age is lower- as in lower 20's to lower 30's.A lot of these other cities are younger and growing fast thus there are less people with less credit history and likely a lot more recent homeowners since many are moving to these newer cities due to affordable housing.

I'd also wager that the bulk of the elderly population in the Bay Area owns homes- and probably some of the nicer, larger homes in some of the nicer areas simply because they got there before prices went nutty. Thus when your city is heavily populated by older people, they tend to save more.

I still stand by my previous statement as well: The more debt you have, the better your credit will be. Just look at what the definition of "credit" is. It means that you can be counted on to repay a debt and the more "history" you have in regards to how long you've been paying down debt means your credit becomes greater. At last report, the latest census showed that about 49% of all Bay Area residents paid 50%+ of their incomes on housing alone. That's 20% more than the national average of 30%, which is generally held as a healthier number. Considering the high number of older residents in the Bay Area who likely own their homes outright, that means a far larger number than 50% of the current mortgage holders in the area are shelling out more than half of their money on their houses. Thus the Bay Area is one giant ripe credit-building machine with tons and tons of people with lots of debt.

[Ceece]

I have tons of credit but little debt, and that's why my credit score is better than yours.

[sliverbox]

I have tons of credit but little debt, and that's why my credit score is better than yours.

...better than who's?

[bigdumbgod]

Better to have no debt, and buy only those things one can afford, no?