American Households Financially Underwater Like Never Before

American household debt reached a record $19 trillion, the Federal Reserve reported Monday.

Household debt increased by $18 billion to reach a total of $18.8 trillion between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s May 12 report. The increase comes as both Republicans and Democrats campaign on affordability heading into the 2026 midterms.

The number of Americans who are at least 30 or 60 days behind on their payments was “mostly steady,” according to the Federal Reserve’s Monday press release. Delinquency rates for mortgage debt rose from 1.22% in fourth quarter of 2025 to 1.48% in first quarter of 2026.

Additionally, auto debt rose from 2.94% to 2.97%, credit card debt from 7.04% to 7.10%, and student loan debt from 8.04% to 10.86% during that same time period.

The Federal Reserve data was released just before President Donald Trump told Daily Caller White House Correspondent Reagan Reese last Tuesday that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation” when it comes to ending the war in Iran.

The cost of everyday goods has risen by 0.6% in April, and 0.9% in March, with energy costs in particular rising 10.9% since the war began, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported last Tuesday.

Some trends are positive. For example, the rate of borrowers who are at least 90 days behind in their student loan payments fell from 16.2% to 10.9% in just one quarter, according to the press release.

The findings were based on the New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel which “consists of detailed Equifax credit-report data,” according to the report. The quarterly panel is “a nationally representative 5% random sample of all individuals with a social security number and a credit report,” resulting in a database that “includes approximately 44 million individuals in each quarter.”