It's been nearly two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Americans now have even more debt than they did before.
U.S. consumer debt at the end of 2021 topped $15.6 trillion, according to data released on Tuesday by the Federal Reserve's New York district.
Debt jumped more than $333 billion during the fourth quarter of 2021, and grew just over $1 trillion for the full year. It was the biggest quarterly rise since 2007, and the largest ever annual gain on record going back to 2003.
A majority of the debt increase came from mortgages, rising over $258 million in the fourth quarter and $890 billion for the year, and bringing the total to $11 trillion.
Mortgage originations set a new record, totaling more than $4.5 trillion in 2021.
Credit card balances set a new fourth quarter record, increasing by $52 billion and bringing the total amount of debt to $860 billion.
The Federal Reserve's report comes as they are preparing to raise interest rates to slow down the nearly 40-year high inflation numbers. Rates are expected to rise in March, and are expected to get bumped up five times throughout the year for a total of 1.25 percentage points.
Additionally, auto-loan balances rose by $90 billion (6.6%) to a total of $1.46 trillion. New auto prices rose by 11.8% in 2021 while used vehicle prices rose by 37.3%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Surprisingly, student loans declined in the fourth quarter, but still rose slightly overall for the year by $20 billion. Student loan debt is now over $1.61 trillion in total.
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