As the housing market continues to remain stagnant, consumers are quickly racking up credit card debt and teetering the edge of instability, according to a report released today.
The average household credit card balance increased by $174 during the second quarter of 2014, now up to $6,802, according to a recent study by CardHub.
And this is expected to easily surpass the $7,000 mark during 2014, officially reaching levels not witnessed since the end of 2010.
"Assuming the above projection holds true, by the end of 2014 U.S. consumers will be roughly $1,300 away from the credit card debt tipping point, where minimum payments become unsustainable and delinquencies skyrocket," CardHub said.
This year’s second quarter increase was 46% higher than the next highest Q2 debt buildup, which was recorded in 2011. And it is nearly 200% higher than the increase witnessed in Q2 2009, when the country’s economy was just emerging from the Great Recession.
The year started off strong, with consumers actually paying down their credit card debt in a big way in the first quarter of 2014.
But this all quickly changed. “For the first time in the past six years, consumers reversed almost the entirety of their standard first quarter paydown during the second quarter of the year,” the study found.
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http://www.housingwire.com/articles/31334-report-credit-card-debt-nearing-tipping-point
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