Despite affordability issues, household debt is actually down, report shows

Considering the overall affordability crisis and high gas prices in particular, it's surprising that inflation-adjusted household debt actually fell during the first quarter of the year, according to WalletHub's inflation-adjusted analysis of the latest data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Consumers actually paid off 351 percent more debt than they did during the first quarter of 2025. Total household debt is now roughly $1.1 trillion below the record from 2008 when you adjust for inf...