Phoenix Is One Of The Most Debt-Burdened Cities, According To New Study

Phoenix Is One Of The Most Debt-Burdened Cities, According To New Study

By Staff Reporter |

The city of Phoenix is one of the cities with the most debt in the country, according to a new study.

Per a study from LendingTree, Phoenix ranks 18th among the 50 largest metropolitan cities for debts held. The average Phoenix resident has a debt surpassing $39,000. That’s higher than the average nonmortgage debt across all 50 of the country’s largest metropolitan cities (about $37,800). 

The average Phoenix resident’s income amounts to $79,600 according to Census Bureau data, above the median household income for the rest of the country (over $75,100). The average Phoenix resident debt amount is nearly half of the city’s median income.

LendingTree retrieved its data using anonymized credit reports from around 210,000 users on their platform from April through June of this year across the 50 largest cities. Nonmortgage debt includes auto loans, student loans, credit cards, personal loans, and all other types of debt excluding mortgages. 

Nearly 97 percent of consumers in Phoenix have nonmortage loan debts, per the study. That tracks with the debt averages for rest of the 50 most populated metros: on average, 97 percent of residents across all those cities have nonmortage debt.

45 percent of Phoenix residents also have auto loan debt, 85 percent have credit card debt, 24 percent have personal loan debt, and 24 percent have student loan debt. 

Phoenix ranked even higher with its average auto loan debt, placing eleventh with the average auto loan debt sitting at nearly $14,000. That’s higher than the average auto loan debt for the state, which amounts to around $6,000. Auto loan debts accounted for the greatest portion of average debts held by Phoenix residents, which is also the case for 26 of the other 50 major metros included in the study.

Average credit card debt in Phoenix amounted to just over $8,200, average personal loan debt amounted to about $4,200, and average student loan debt amounted to over $10,300. 

The average Phoenix resident’s credit card debt came out higher than the state’s: the average for all of Arizona amounts to over $6,300. 

At the end of last year, Arizona ranked among the top ten states for the highest average unsecured personal loan debts: around $12,300. Arizona also ranked among the top 20 for highest average household debt increases from last year to this year: an increase of over $700, making total household debt in the state amount to over $429.6 billion. 

The city’s student loan debt is lower than that of the state. As a whole, the state has an average student loan debt of nearly $35,700, with about 902,600 borrowers living in the state. 

Phoenix was the only metro city from Arizona listed on the top-50 ranking by LendingTree. 

The top three cities for debts held were all in Texas: Austin, San Antonio, and Houston, in order of highest to lowest.

The three cities with the lowest amounts of debt, in order from least to greatest, were: San Jose, California; Louisville, Kentucky; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.