Topic
Debt owed by individuals and families—mortgages, credit cards, auto and student loans—tracked as a gauge of financial health and economic risk.
New York Fed data cited by CBS News show seriously delinquent auto loans at a record and nearly 13% of card balances seriously past due. Wage growth is lagging inflation, so lenders and sellers to households face weaker repayment and more cautious spending at once.
Reality
Nearly 20% of US families reported being behind on debt payments in the Fed's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, up from about 12% in 2022. PYMNTS reported the lowest quarter's net worth fell from $3,800 to $1,700, while the overall median rose 2%.
Reality
President Lee Jae-myung vowed to keep fighting property speculation as Seoul's Gangnam-area apartment listings rose 5,408 to 27,590 after August's tax plan. Prime Seoul prices now turn on whether those sellers cut their asks to meet buyers.
Reality
Business Insider's ranking of Education Department data puts federal student debt at $40,768 per borrower across 42.3 million people. Employers who plan benefits off that figure would overshoot the average in most states.
Reality
Lee Jae-myung promoted four serving officials to his economic team on October 1, among them the regulator behind Seoul's 600 million won mortgage cap. With his approval rating falling partly over housing, the lineup points to firmer lending rules and heavier holding taxes in his second year.
Reality
Forward guidance ended for the first time in 15 years. The increase that followed it arrived with no stated path. The Bank of Korea now has to decide whether to follow a chair who is keeping the path to himself.
Reality
Four in 10 young respondents did not classify buy now, pay later as debt, and those who reported receiving financial education were less likely than others to call it debt. The survey leaves the order of the two open.
Reality
Jodi Sprague's monthly student-loan payment goes from $404 to $1,014 this month after the July 1 repayment overhaul scrapped SAVE. The first line to give way in the family budget is her daughter's college housing.
Reality
Under-25 delinquency of 37.6% is about 1.7 times the rate implied for Argentine borrowers overall, and the data behind it counts people rather than pesos, so it cannot yet say whose loan book is impaired.
Reality
A generation with 20% of the population owns more than half of US household wealth, but the top decile holds 71% of it and the average boomer carries $92,619 in debt.
Reality