Newsroom

May 25, 2016

Fed study: Households improving, but many still struggle

Overall, American households reported mild improvements in their financial well-being during 2015, though many still admitted they are struggling financially and feel "excluded from economic advancement," according to the Federal Reserve's latest survey of households' financial conditions.

The report notes that 69 percent of respondents said they are either "living comfortably" or "doing okay"; that is up 4 percentage points from 2014. However, 46 percent of respondents say they would struggle to meet emergency expenses of $400, and 22 percent of workers have two or more jobs.

Also noted in the survey:

  • 18 percent of respondents with outstanding student loans are behind on their payments, up from the 8 percent reported in the 2014 survey. However, the median level of student debt owed fell from $18,000 in 2014 to $12,000 in 2015.
  • 21 percent of adults in the survey are underbanked, or defined as having a depository account but also using at least one alternative financial service in the prior year. This is up from 12 percent in 2014.
  • 8 percent of respondents are unbanked (do not have a checking, savings or money-market account), unchanged from last year.
  • Of the respondents who purchased a vehicle in the past year, 32.9 percent took out a loan at the location where they purchased the vehicle, and 30.9 percent got their loans from a credit union, bank or online lender. Of those borrowers, just more than one-fifth pay an interest rate of less than 2 percent while 31 percent pay more than 4 percent.