U.S. households are now 18.79 trillion dollars in debt. In 1980, U.S. households were just 1.4 trillion dollars in debt. Over the past several decades we have witnessed a household debt binge that is unlike anything that we have ever witnessed in our entire history. But if consumers could handle that debt load, there wouldn’t be such a high level of concern. Unfortunately, just like we witnessed prior to the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, Americans are getting behind on their debts at a staggering rate. This isn’t going to end well, but of course many of you know that already.
The latest numbers published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York show that delinquency rates for auto loans, student loans and credit card debt have all soared to very alarming levels…
Today, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) published new data showing that the share of Americans behind on a range of household consumer debts reached all-time highs in the first quarter of 2026. As the nation hurdles toward an historical record of $19 trillion in total household debt, Americans saw the highest rates of auto loan delinquency that FRBNY has ever recorded, rates of credit card delinquency near those last seen at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, and student loan delinquency at its worst since before the COVID-era payment pause.
Thanks to our accelerating cost of living crisis, most U.S. households are barely scraping by from month to month these days.
So if you are feeling financially squeezed right now, I want you to know that you are not alone.
As financial pressure rises, an increasing number of households are reaching a breaking point.
As a result, we are beginning to witness a tsunami of delinquencies…
While families took on more debt, they also fell behind. Credit card delinquency rates are now the highest they have been in 16 years (13.1 percent). Overall student loan delinquency rates soared to 10.3 percent, the highest recorded since 2020. Significantly more student loan borrowers are also entering serious delinquency, with their loans more than 90 days past due (10.9 percent) compared to the first quarter of 2025 (8.0 percent). In fact, delinquency rates have increased for all credit types tracked by the FRBNY since the final quarter of 2025.
Those figures are deeply troubling.
And I haven’t even mentioned mortgages yet.
In April, there were more than 42,000 foreclosure filings…
New data released by real estate analytics firm ATTOM found that 42,430 properties nationwide received foreclosure filings in April 2026, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
Is that a high number?
Yes, it is.
In fact, it is 18 percent higher than last year’s very high figure for the month of April…
Foreclosure filings across the US have surged 18 percent compared to last year in a troubling sign that mounting financial pressure is beginning to hit homeowners.
It is a red flag that is reminiscent of the foreclosure spike in the run up to the 2008 Great Recession – that financial pressure is mounting for thousands of families.
Many of you clearly remember that we experienced a growing wave of foreclosures well before the financial markets started to crash in late 2008.
It was obvious that the housing bubble was crashing way in advance, and we can see the same thing happening again.
In Seattle, the number of homes listed for sale is nearly twice the usual figure, and prices are beginning to fall…
There are 8,630 homes listed for sale across the Seattle metro right now. In a normal April, there are about 4,600.
Nick Gerli, CEO of the real estate analytics firm Reventure, posted that data on Sunday on X. His read: Seattle’s housing market is going through a historic inventory shock, driven by layoffs, historic unaffordability, and outbound migration. King County values are already down 2.5% year over year. Prices are falling, and a typical listing is still right around $1 million, with a monthly mortgage payment of $7,000 to $8,000. That’s $84,000 to $96,000 a year just on the mortgage. The median household income across the Seattle metro is about $112,000 before taxes. After federal and state deductions, that household is taking home somewhere around $85,000 to $90,000. The mortgage alone consumes virtually all of it.
The market is cracking. Regular people still can’t afford to buy.
Yes, the market in Seattle is most definitely cracking.
And the same thing could be said about dozens of other markets all over the nation.
It is inevitable that home prices will fall because we have reached a point where most of the population simply cannot afford a typical mortgage payment.
In our “K-shaped economy”, those at the very top have been thriving while the vast majority of the country has been deeply struggling.
Sadly, there are a lot of young adults out there that have simply stopped trying.
This is particularly true for young men, and the numbers clearly show that millions upon millions of them have chosen to drop out of the labor force…
The Department of Labor keeps careful track of employment and the demographics thereof. Their latest report on men in the labor force is both mysterious and deeply alarming. It turns out that the labor force is missing about 7 million men who would otherwise be working. Close to a third of working-age men have vanished from the labor force.
The labor force participation rate among “prime age men,” age 25 to 54, in the 1950s approached 100 percent. Now it is 89 percent, meaning roughly 11 percent are not in the labor force (neither working nor looking for work).
Among all men over 16 years of age, the rate is a devastatingly low 66 percent, so about one-third are gone. Among U.S.-born men, nearly 22 percent are gone.
This is really quite shocking.
We really do have a national crisis on our hands.
The number of homeless Americans is at an all-time high.
Most of them are men.
The number of drug addicts in our country is at an all-time high.
Most of them are men.
So many people have been falling through the cracks in the system, and it seems to get worse with each passing year.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of households are falling behind on their debts and America’s middle class is steadily shrinking.
All of the long-term trends are taking us in the wrong direction, and it appears that our economic problems will only accelerate during the months ahead.
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