Average debt per state

[toomuchreality]

FIND OUT IF YOU'RE IN THE HOLE FOR MORE THAN YOUR STATE'S AVERAGE.

List of states and average amount of debt...

bestlifeonline.com/debt-by-state-news/

Utah comes in at #37, with an average of $21,715.38.

[jerseygirl]

Yikes number 1 Hawaii HUGE amount almost $870000
I’m in NJ so #18[ about $390000
br]Yet we keep sending absolute bushels of $$ to the state but it’s never enough even after adding a state income tax, sales tax and many other taxes

[toomuchreality]

Jul 1, 2021 18:21:04 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Yikes number 1 Hawaii HUGE amount almost $870000
I’m in NJ so #18[ about $390000
br]Yet we keep sending absolute bushels of $$ to the state but it’s never enough even after adding a state income tax, sales tax and many other taxes

It will never be enough, or so it seems.

[Opti]

Looks interesting, but I'd love the background numbers and weighting if any. Hawaii has the most expensive housing, so ... not surprising its number one.

I got this from following the link in the OP's article-

GOBankingRates conducted a survey to find out how much debt residents in each U.S. state and Washington, D.C., carry. Respondents were asked to share the amount of each type of debt they have, specifically for mortgages, credit card debt, student loans, car loans and medical debt. Keep in mind that the number of respondents in each state who participated in this survey varied from state to state.

www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/debt/americans-debt-state/

[Opti]

Jul 1, 2021 18:21:04 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Yikes number 1 Hawaii HUGE amount almost $870000
I’m in NJ so #18[ about $390000
br]Yet we keep sending absolute bushels of $$ to the state but it’s never enough even after adding a state income tax, sales tax and many other taxes

We are also a donor state to the federal government, giving way more than we get back!
NJ Strong, supporting the US since ?

[jerseygirl]

Jul 1, 2021 18:27:19 GMT -5 Opti said:

Jul 1, 2021 18:21:04 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Yikes number 1 Hawaii HUGE amount almost $870000
I’m in NJ so #18[ about $390000
br]Yet we keep sending absolute bushels of $$ to the state but it’s never enough even after adding a state income tax, sales tax and many other taxes

We are also a donor state to the federal government, giving way more than we get back!
NJ Strong, supporting the US since ?

Well the saying is - the rich should pay their fair share - and NJ is certainly richer than many states

But never have heard what exactly IS the fair share??

[Ava]

Wow!!!!
I'm well above the average debt for CT of $32,045.45
But that number seems really low if it's supposed to include all type of debt.
My debt is more than 4 times that, but includes a car loan, a mortgage and student loan.

[Opti]

Jul 1, 2021 18:31:24 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Jul 1, 2021 18:27:19 GMT -5 Opti said:

We are also a donor state to the federal government, giving way more than we get back!
NJ Strong, supporting the US since ?

Well the saying is - the rich should pay their fair share - and NJ is certainly richer than many states

But never have heard what exactly IS the fair share??

Everybody's idea will be different, but I'd like to take a crack at it at the federal level and normalize things that the federal govt has a hand in. The federal govt supports state programs like SNAP, and UE, and I believe various housing programs through HUD etc. NJ affordable housing is already normalized from the NJ POV based on community wealth and makeup. (I will not discuss, at this moment, the dearth of affordable housing or that market rate housing in NJ seems to be slanted most places to median income NJ up to rich NY commuters that decide they want to flee the city or nearby environs.)

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

These numbers do not seem accurate if they're supposed to include mortgage debt. 
If they only surveyed 2500, that's 50 people per state. I don't find that to be a large enough sample size. 

[Deleted]

These numbers don’t make sense to me if they include mortgage debt. The article mentions mortgages, but isn’t clear if mortgages are included in what they’re calling consumer debt. But maybe I missed something.

Anyway, according to the article the average debt in my state is over $20k. Excluding my mortgage, my debt is less than $400. 

It makes me SO happy to be able to type that. Thank you JESUS! And YMAM for teaching me. 

If I include my mortgage debt, it’s a whole ‘nother story though, and my debt is a lot more than the average for my state. BOOOOOO!

[Opti]

Jul 1, 2021 20:25:42 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

These numbers do not seem accurate if they're supposed to include mortgage debt. 
If they only surveyed 2500, that's 50 people per state. I don't find that to be a large enough sample size. 

They are a banking company trying to sell banking products so they probably surveyed their customers. Since its self reported AND they say some states reported more often than others, its interesting but not conclusive. They had something on car ownership costs based on the average cost of a new vehicle, but I got kicked out or clicked on the wrong thing and only saw #1 CA, #2 MI and its was gone into the mists of the inter-webs...

[toomuchreality]

My debt is $0. But that doesn't mean I have $$$.

[toomuchreality]

The article shows as being fact checked, for whatever that's worth.

[finnime]

I'm stunned. Maryland is #2 @ $284,000. The results don't make a lot of sense to me, either. You have a state like Maine with a lot of debt per debtor contrasted with much wealthier states that look better?  It seems as though some states were assessed including mortgages and others, not.

[Opti]

Jul 2, 2021 5:35:18 GMT -5 finnime said:

I'm stunned. Maryland is #2 @ $284,000. The results don't make a lot of sense to me, either. You have a state like Maine with a lot of debt per debtor contrasted with much wealthier states that look better?  It seems as though some states were assessed including mortgages and others, not.

  Self reported, unequal sample sizes, probably unnormalized data.

[TheOtherMe]

I don't see how mortgages are included in this.  It can't be for Iowa.  I know we have a lot of retired farmers who own homes outright as well as others, but those who still manage to have a family farm are always in debt.

My monthly expenses go on CC but are paid off every month.

[Lizard Queen]

Our mortgage balance is somewhere in the $30k range, which we can write a check to pay off. No other debt, other than current month balances on CC's. It's hard to believe our debt is actually higher than average in my state. There is something lacking in the methodology, the least of which is an good explanation of the calculation.

[happyhoix]

Are the looking at everyone equally? Would make more sense to me to compare people who own their own homes to those who rent. Two pools in each state.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I am appreciative of the pictures of each state.

[kadee79]

Except for a tractor (John Deere) that DH financed at NO interest, we have no debt.  We could easily pay off the tractor, but decided to take advantage of the no interest to keep our other funds invested...it's working for us!  We don't have a mortgage  due to building our house ourselves on a pay-as-you-go basis...so it took us a couple years from start to moving in day...but it was paid for the day we moved in!  And I'd paid off the land before we started building the house.

ETA...there is no way that includes mortgages in most states.  My son lives in Ca. & bought a house about 3 yrs. ago, so his debt is over $500,000 right now, but coming down faster after he refinanced at a super low interest rate.

[tallguy]

Jul 1, 2021 20:25:42 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

These numbers do not seem accurate if they're supposed to include mortgage debt. 
If they only surveyed 2500, that's 50 people per state. I don't find that to be a large enough sample size. 

The numbers would include mortgage debt, but you are correct about the sample size.  Even if we assume that the number of respondents were representative of the country as a whole (which is a very dubious assumption), they basically talked to eight out of every million people.  Several states have fewer than that, so their data is based on maybe six responses at best, and probably fewer.  Doesn't take much for one outlier to greatly skew that data.  It's like the old joke where Bill Gates walked into a room full of bums and the average net worth among them all was $10 billion.  It means little based on an unscientific study. 

[NoNamePerson]

Jul 1, 2021 21:00:30 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

The article shows as being fact checked, for whatever that's worth.

 FB fact checked! 

[toomuchreality]

Jul 3, 2021 16:32:36 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Jul 1, 2021 21:00:30 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

The article shows as being fact checked, for whatever that's worth.

 FB fact checked! 

Well, that's not saying much! Is it?
🙄🙄🙄

[buystoys]

We're below average for our state. 

[haapai]

I imagine that there are folks at the credit reporting agencies laughing their asses off right now.  They've probably all done similar analyses of their data with sample sizes that are over 2500 in each state and broken down by type of debt. 

I'd love to see those numbers.  These numbers are crap. 

[Deleted]

These numbers are absolutely meaningless and I don't care if they've been fact-checked or not.

First, as others have said, mortgage debt needs to be counted separately. It typically has far lower rates and it's secured by an asset that has a good possibility of appreciating.

Second- what's the denominator? Number of people in all the households sampled? Just the adults? Are people with no debt excluded from the denominator? If the number they're showing is (Total debt including mortgage, car loans, student loans, credit cards)/(Total number if people in the sample) it's useless even if the numbers are correct. The numbers, it should be noted, are self-reported and I'm guessing that many people don't really know how much debt they have, especially if they have multiple credit cards and loans.