Roughly a million borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans late last year, with millions delinquent on their payments and sliding toward the same fate. That’s according to federal data and the latest Household Debt and Credit Report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which dropped on Tuesday. The report includes student loan data as of the end of 2025.
Student loan delinquencies have continued to worsen, said New York Fed researchers on a call with reporters, and they expect the number of borrowers in default to continue to grow.
The report offers further confirmation of a crisis in the U.S. student loan portfolio, in which too many borrowers are not repaying their student loans. Nearly 10% of student loan balances are more than 90 days past due, according to the report.
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/10/nx-s1-5690186/student-loan-default-repayment
File this away in “everything is K-shaped.”
Mortgage delinquencies remain low overall, but they’re climbing fastest in poorer neighborhoods where local economies are starting to crack, the New York Fed finds.
Why it matters: Consumers in low-income neighborhoods are falling behind on mortgage payments, underscoring an economy-wide trend where richer households remain resilient while poorer households feel the pain.
“Although financial distress appears to be deepening for households in lower-income areas, borrowers in higher-income areas appear largely insulated from these pressures, at least as measured by mortgage delinquency,” New York Fed researchers wrote in a blog post.
By the numbers: In aggregate, roughly 1.3% of mortgage balances became seriously delinquent in the fourth quarter of 2025 — a share that is similar to periods outside of the 2008 financial crisis, the New York Fed said.
https://www.axios.com/2026/02/10/mortgage-poor-rich-americans