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Institute for Workplace Studies-----------------Professor Samuel B. Bacharach

School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies

Cornell University

16 East 34th Street, 4th floor--------------------Stuart Basefsky

New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau

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Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)

EBRI NOTES, January 2015, vol. 36, no. 1

 

DEBT OF THE ELDERLY AND NEAR ELDERLY. 1992-2013 [28 January 2015]

http://www.ebri.org/publications/notes/index.cfm?fa=notesDisp&content_id=5480

or

http://www.ebri.org/pdf/notespdf/EBRI_Notes.Jan15.Debt.pdf

[full-text, 15 pages]

 

·         More older American families have debt: The percentage of American families with heads ages 55 or older that had debt increased from 63.4 percent in 2010 to 65.4 percent in 2013. Furthermore, the percentage of these families with debt payments greater than 40 percent of income—a traditional threshold measure of debt load trouble—increased in 2013 to 9.2 percent from 8.5 percent in 2010.

 

·         However, other debt measures were down: Total debt payments as a percentage of income decreased from 11.4 percent in 2010 to 10.0 percent in 2013, and average debt decreased from $80,465 in 2010 to $73,211, while debt as a percentage of assets decreased from 8.5 percent in 2010 to 8.1 percent in 2013.

 

·         Housing debt drove the change in the level of debt payments in 2013, while the nonhousing (consumer) debt-payment share of income held stable from 2010. Housing debt was the major component of debt for families headed by individuals ages 55 or older.

 

·         The debt levels among those with housing debt have obvious and serious implications for the future retirement security of these Americans, perhaps most significantly that these families are potentially at risk of losing what is typically their most important asset—their home.

 

 

Press Release 28 January 2015

More Older American Families Taking on Debt—And More With Problematic Debt Payment Levels

http://www.ebri.org/pdf/PR1108.Debt.28Jan15.pdf

 

WASHINGTON—A larger share of older American families had debt in 2013, and those with

debt loads that are considered problematic also increased, according to a new report from the

nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

 

The EBRI report finds that among American families with family heads ages 55 or older, debt

has increased from 63.4 percent in 2010 to 65.4 percent in 2013, the latest for which data are

available. Compared with the1992 level of 53.8 percent, the 2013 level is up more than 10 percentage

points.

 

Furthermore, the percentage of these families with debt payments greater than 40 percent of

income—a traditional threshold measure of debt load trouble—increased in 2013 to 9.2 percent

from 8.5 percent in 2010.

 

The primary cause of rising debt load: Americans’ homes. “Housing debt drove the change in the

level of debt payments in 2013, while the nonhousing (consumer) debt-payment share of income

held stable from 2010,”said Craig Copeland, EBRI senior research associate and author of the

report. “Housing debt was the major component of debt for families headed by individuals ages

55 or older.”

 

AND MORE....

 

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