{"id":48197,"date":"2025-11-11T15:14:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/48197\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T15:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:14:09","slug":"californians-slow-their-borrowings-as-late-bill-payments-rise-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/48197\/","title":{"rendered":"Californians slow their borrowings as late bill payments rise \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Californians have cooled their borrowings \u2013 and skipped more bill payments, two more signs of a stressful economy.<\/p>\n

My trusty spreadsheet found these patterns within the Federal Reserve Bank of New York\u2019s third-quarter study of credit files<\/a>. The data includes the size and payments of consumer debts in 11 big states and the nation through the September 2025 quarter. These statistics only consider individuals with credit histories \u2014 a sizable but not comprehensive segment of the population. Debt levels are tracked as an average per person.<\/p>\n

According to this math, Californians had $87,570 in consumer debt per person in the third quarter, a 1.2% increase from the same period a year ago. That\u2019s a cooling from 2.9% growth in the previous 12 months, and it\u2019s below the 3%-a-year expansion pace since 2003.<\/p>\n

Yes, fewer debts are a desirable goal. Yet skittish consumers often prune borrowing as financial anxieties increase. For example, the Conference Board\u2019s California consumer confidence index has decreased by 18% over the past year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These debt-growth numbers are a contrast with borrowing patterns nationwide.<\/p>\n

U.S. consumer debt increased by 2.5% in a year to $63,340 per person. That\u2019s a pick up from 1.8% growth in the previous 12 months. Since 2003, consumer debts nationwide have expanded at an average annual rate of 3.2%.<\/p>\n

Also, ponder California\u2019s two main economic rivals.<\/p>\n

In Texas, the $60,100 debt per person increased by 4.1% in a year \u2013 faster than the 1.9% growth in the previous 12 months or the 4% average since 2003.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s $62,460 marked a 3.5% jump in a year, outpacing the 2.9% rise in the previous 12 months and matching\u00a0the 3.5% pace since 2003.<\/p>\n

Late payments<\/p>\n

Californians\u2019 debt-paying troubles rose, too.<\/p>\n

In the third quarter, 2.01% of California consumer bills were 90 days or more late. That\u2019s up from 1.9% and the highest level of unpaid debts since the first quarter of 2020, when the pandemic first impacted the economy.<\/p>\n

To be fair to California, however, the current bill-paying tardiness is well below the 3.56% average missed payment rate over the last 23 years.<\/p>\n

Plus, Californians are paying their bills more effectively than their national peers. The U.S. delinquency rate was 2.98% in the third quarter of 2023 \u2013 roughly one-third above the Golden State.<\/p>\n

Yes, that U.S. rate was down from 3.02% three months earlier. However, the nation\u2019s late payments in the second quarter were at their highest level since the first quarter of 2020. The U.S. tardiness rate has averaged 3.74% since 2003.<\/p>\n

Additionally, consider that late payments in Texas ran 3.85% and 4.1% in Florida in the third quarter \u2013 well above California\u2019s rate.<\/p>\n

Educational drag<\/p>\n

A significant issue is missed student-loan payments, as federal repayment reprieves ended this year.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, 14.3% of student debts went unpaid, up from 0.8% a year earlier, and the highest level in a data set that dates to 2000<\/p>\n

The N.Y. Fed offered no state-level delinquency rates. But California has a below-average amount of education debts at $4,710 per person, accounting for 5% of overall borrowings statewide \u2013 well below national norms.<\/p>\n

Nationally, student debts average $5,540, representing 9% of all borrowings. Texas? $5,350 per capita, 9% of debts. Florida? $5,110 per capita, 8% of all borrowings.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Californians have cooled their borrowings \u2013 and skipped more bill payments, two more signs of a stressful economy.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,7,383,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-48197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}