Consumer Debt Continues to Rise

"Despite an economic recovery now in its sixth year, more American households are in debt now than at any point in the past 15 years, particularly the middle class. In fact, in the recent years household debt has risen faster than family income and, on average, exceeds annual income for the first time since the Federal Reserve started surveying consumer finances in the early 1980s. The explosion in debt, fueled largely by mortgage lending on residential housing that rose in value, and then leveled off or declined, has some economists worried that the next economic recession will be devastating to families that already owe so much. But proponents of the expansion in consumer credit say it has helped to democratize home ownership and fuel economic expansion."

(from the Congressional Quarterly, February 2007)