Picture a home of your own, perhaps with a quintessential white-picket fence or a porch in the back with a view. Sound like the setting of a fairy tale? Homeownership might appear increasingly elusive to a large subset of the population, but a whopping $8.74 trillion of U.S. debt (72 percent) is mortgage-related, according to MarketWatch.
That sounds like a lot — and it is currently experiencing an uptick — but it represents a marked drop (of $1.3 trillion) from the highs leading up to the Great Recession. Since then, millennials have struggled to enter the buyer’s market due to high levels of student loan debt, idle salaries and strict lending standards. Simultaneously, low home equity levels and boomerang kids have forced many baby boomers to defer downsizing their homes, according to Barclays.
The team at Credio wanted to see where Americans carry the most mortgage debt. To do this, they analyzed data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to calculate the mortgage debt per capita (amount attributable to all citizens) in all 50 states. They then ranked the list from lowest to highest.
This list features the 10 states with the largest mortgage burdens, along with the delinquency rate in the state (measured as the percent of mortgage debt that is at least 90 days delinquent).
#10. New Jersey
Mortgage Debt per Capita: $39,100
Mortgage Debt Delinquency Rate: 5.43%
#9. Alaska
Mortgage Debt per Capita: $40,470
Mortgage Debt Delinquency Rate: 0.85%
#8. Connecticut
Mortgage Debt per Capita: $40,990
Mortgage Debt Delinquency Rate: 3.27%
#7. Massachusetts
Mortgage Debt per Capita: $43,460
Mortgage Debt Delinquency Rate: 2.36%
#6. Washington
Mortgage Debt per Capita: $43,980
Mortgage Debt Delinquency Rate: 1.61%
#5. Colorado
Mortgage Debt per Capita: $46,050
Mortgage Debt Delinquency Rate: 0.79%
#4. Virginia
Mortgage Debt per Capita: $46,180
Mortgage Debt Delinquency Rate: 1.27%
#3. Maryland
Mortgage Debt per Capita: $49,320
Mortgage Debt Delinquency Rate: 2.89%
#2. California
Mortgage Debt per Capita: $51,190
Mortgage Debt Delinquency Rate: 1.21%
#1. Hawaii
Mortgage Debt per Capita: $51,770
Mortgage Debt Delinquency Rate: 2.78%