Californians slow their borrowings as late bill payments rise

"Californians have cooled their borrowings and skipped more bill payments, two more signs of a stressful economy. My trusty spreadsheet found these patterns within the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's third-quarter study of credit files. 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 a sizable but not comprehensive segment of the population."

"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's a cooling from 2.9% growth in the previous 12 months, and it's below the 3%-a-year expansion pace since 2003. Yes, fewer debts are a desirable goal. Yet skittish consumers often prune borrowing as financial anxieties increase. For example, the Conference Board's California consumer confidence index has decreased by 18% over the past year."

Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's third-quarter credit-file study covers consumer debts in 11 large states and the nation through September 2025. The dataset measures average per-person consumer debt among individuals with credit histories, not the entire population. California averaged $87,570 per person, up 1.2% year-over-year, a slowdown from 2.9% and below the long-run 3% pace. U.S. consumer debt rose 2.5% to $63,340 per person. Texas and Florida saw faster annual gains of 4.1% and 3.5%, respectively. California's share of accounts 90+ days delinquent rose to 2.01%, the highest since early 2020.

Read at www.ocregister.com