A mountain of mortgage, and a cascade of consumer, debt

By Lee Russ

Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 04:53 PM

Just so you know, here are some figures from the Feb., 2007 Statistical Supplement to the Federal Reserve Bulletin:

1. Total U.S. Mortgage Debt Outstanding (Table 1.54), in millions of dollars

2002 -8,367,310
2003 -9,374,889
2004 10,680,490
2005 12,148,740
2006* 13,033,520
* Third Quarter

Now remember, those figures are in millions. So the 2006 figure is 13.033 trillion dollars. And the 2006 figure is a full 55.77% higher than the 2002 figure.

2. Total Outstanding Consumer Credit (Table 1.55)

2003 -2,087,784,000,000
2004 -2,202,425,000,000
2005 -2,295,558,000,000
2006** -2,380,924,000,000
**End of October

That's an increase of almost $300 billion from 2003 to Oct. of 2006. And the Oct. total of 2006, $2.382 trillion works out to $7,936 for every single one of the U.S.'s estimated 300,000,000 citizens.