Household debt tops pre-recession peak

WASHINGTON — U.S. household debt reached a record high in the first three months of this year, topping the previous peak reached in 2008.

Americans have stepped up borrowing over the past three years, yet the nature of what Americans owe has changed since the Great Recession. Student and auto loans make up a larger proportion of household debt, while mortgages and credit-card debt remain below pre-recession levels.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Wednesday that household debt, which also includes auto loans and home-equity lines of credit, stood at $12.73 trillion in the first quarter. That’s above the $12.68 trillion outstanding in the fall of 2008, the previous record. The figure isn’t adjusted for inflation or population size.

“This record debt level is neither a reason to celebrate nor a cause for alarm,” Donghoon Lee, research officer at the New York Fed said. “The debt and its borrowers look quite different today.”

Measured as a percentage of the overall U.S. economy, household debt is still smaller than in 2008. It is equivalent to 67 percent of the economy now, compared with 85 percent nine years ago.