By Naveen Athrappully
The average household in the United States had $152,653 in debt by the end of the second quarter of 2025, financial services company WalletHub said in an Aug. 5 report.
At $152,653, the debt owed by a household is just $13,809 shy of the all-time high, it said.
The figures are based on data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which reported in an Aug. 5 statement that the total household debt in the country stood at $18.39 trillion in Q2, up by 1 percent from the previous quarter.
Mortgage accounted for the largest portion of the debt at $12.94 trillion. This was followed by auto debts of $1.65 trillion, $1.63 trillion in student loans, and credit card debt at $1.20 trillion.
“Despite the recent uptick in mortgage delinquency, overall mortgage performance remains strong by historical standards,” said Joelle Scally, Economic Policy Adviser at the New York Fed.
WalletHub calculated the average household debt to adjust for inflation, “as it accurately shows how debt compares to historical levels,” it said.
The ratio of total household debt to household deposits is 23 percent below the historical average and roughly 47 percent lower than the peak hit in the early 2000s, according to the company. A lower ratio indicates households have enough deposits to cover their debts compared to historical averages.
WalletHub said the ratio “indicates consumers are in a stable position” based on its analysis.
Mortgages represented the highest amount of debt held by average U.S. households in Q2 at $107,384. This was followed by auto loans at $13,739, student loans at $13,598, and credit card debt of $10,037.
WalletHub’s household financial analysis was published the same day the company released the results of its household debt survey, which was conducted among 200 individuals.
Many people expressed concern about their debt situation and the future of the economy. According to the survey, “44 percent of people expect their household debt to increase in the next 12 months.”
In addition, “more than half of Americans say their household is struggling with debt.” Nearly two out of every five households said that debt was a source of conflict in their homes.
“More than two in three people say the economy is not doing as well as they thought it would be,” the survey said, adding that “55 percent of Americans think they’ll still have debt when they die.”
More than one in five Americans said the preferential treatment given to student loan borrowers in the past five years was unfair.
Under the Biden administration, the government took various measures to reduce student debt through forgiveness initiatives.
For instance, in December, the Biden administration announced it was canceling $4.28 billion in student debts for 55,000 public service workers. This took the total amount of student loans of public service workers forgiven by the Biden administration to roughly $180 billion for almost five million Americans.
The Trump administration has criticized the forgiveness policy, with the Education Department restarting the collection of student loans in May after a five-year hiatus.
“For years, the Biden administration used so-called ‘loan forgiveness’ promises to win votes, but federal courts repeatedly ruled that those actions were unlawful,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in July. “Congress designed these programs to ensure that borrowers repay their loans, yet the Biden administration tried to illegally force taxpayers to foot the bill instead.”
Consumer Sentiment, GDP Growth
While the WalletHub survey shows people are concerned about their debt situation and the economy, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Survey of Consumer Expectations shows a more positive shift in people’s sentiment.
“Consumers expect smaller growth in their tax payments and are more optimistic about their household financial situations,” the Fed said in an Aug. 7 statement.
“Expectations about the labor market were mixed with consumers reporting greater likelihoods of losing and finding jobs, and a lower likelihood of a rise in overall unemployment.”
The U.S. economy also showed good performance in the second quarter, the first full quarter under the Trump administration, growing by 3 percent, according to an advance estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
This is up from the 0.5 percent decline in the first quarter and exceeded economists’ expectations of a 2.4 percent growth rate.
In a July 30 statement, the White House said that the economic growth brought about by the administration was fueling America’s “golden age.”
“Today, GDP growth came in above market expectations, and yesterday, consumer confidence rose. Americans trust in President Trump’s America First economic agenda that continues to prove the so-called ‘experts’ wrong,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“President Trump has reduced America’s reliance on foreign products, boosted investment in the U.S., and created thousands of jobs—delivering on his promise to Make America Wealthy Again.”
