As summer is coming to a close and schools are starting back up, households are navigating rising costs and subsequent rising debt.
Compared to last July, the cost of rent, groceries, electricity, and car insurance have all risen by over 3%. At the same time, real weekly earnings have only increased by 0.2%. The price of gas for cars and household needs has decreased.
Nearly every area of debt has increased by over 5%, except for student loan debt, which declined by 1.3%. Overall, total household debt has increased 5.6% by 0.9 trillion with credit card debt increasing the most by 15.7%.
See IWF’s Household Financial Report Card tracker below for a helpful summary of year-over-year inflation and debt percentage changes.
