Auto Loans Outnumber Mortgages in U.S.
Mortgages were outnumbered by auto loans last quarter, according to new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
There were 80.6 million mortgages held in the second quarter, and 84 million auto loans. Auto loans totaled $814 billion, a 2.5% or $20 billion increase from 1Q13, and the largest increase of any other loan segment last quarter.
Though not quite as aged as those baby boomers we wrote about last week, most of 2Q’s auto loans were held by car buyers in the 30-to-49 age bracket. That is a pre-recession trend. The only age group financing more loans today than before the credit crisis are 60-and-older boomers.
As we’ve covered recently, younger car buyers between 18 and 25 are borrowing much less than their older counterparts, most likely because of the skyrocketing student loan debt. Despite reaching the level of their average originations from before recession, 18- to 25-year-olds generate less than 1 million new loans each quarter.
