Consumers have continued paying down their mortgage debt, even at a faster rate, during 2010 and 2011. Since 2008, however, have actively paid down their mortgages (shown in green), and the net amount paid off has increased each year. Consumers paid down mortgage debt by $241 billion in 2011 and $213 billion in 2010. Please see our blog for a more detailed description.

After stripping out the effect of charge-offs, we see that consumers actively reduced debt for consumption-related expenditures for both 2009 and 2010, but new borrowing for education was fairly constant throughout the period. Please see our blog post for a more detailed description.

Aggregate consumer debt fell by $53 billion in the second quarter, continuing the downward trend in household debt in place since the peak in the third quarter of 2008.

Overall, delinquencies improved in 2012Q2. As of June 30, 9.0% of outstanding debt was in some stage of delinquency, compared with 9.3% at the end of 2012Q1. However, 90+ day delinquency rates remain high compared with pre-crisis levels, and variation exists by loan type. Much improvement can be seen in the delinquency rates of mortgages and credit cards, while HELOCs and student loan delinquency rates have worsened.

Technical Notes
Data Dictionary