New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that aggregate delinquency rates improved in the second quarter of 2026, with 4.7% of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency. The figures come from the New York Fed's Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, which draws on the bank's Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample of anonymized consumer credit records, and serves as one of the most comprehensive public gauges of US household balance sheets. Beneath the headline improvement, however, new delinquencies rose slightly for auto loans and mortgages, while delinquencies on credit cards remained elevated.

"Delinquency rates across most products have held steady over the past two years," said Joelle Scally, economic policy advisor at the New York Fed. "Still, new delinquencies for auto loans and credit cards remain at elevated levels, a trend we'll continue to monitor."

Among earlier-stage delinquencies, credit card debt that is more than 30 days past due has remained relatively steady at about 9% of outstanding balances since it first reached that level in 2024. Auto loans sit at about 8%, while mortgages are around 4%. These early-stage measures are watched closely as an early signal of household strain, since consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of US economic activity.

Transitions into serious delinquency, defined as 90 days or more past due, have held relatively steady over the past year but have edged slightly higher. Credit card delinquencies rose modestly on a year-over-year basis, increasing from 6.93% in the second quarter of 2025 to 6.97% in the second quarter of 2026. The share of auto loans entering serious delinquency climbed from 2.93% to 3% over the same period, while mortgages transitioning into serious delinquency ticked up from 1.29% to 1.52%.

Student loans stood out as a notable exception to the broader pattern, with the resumption of reporting on defaulted student debt producing some distortions after the pandemic-era pause on defaults came to an end. The Education Department began reporting defaulted federal student loans to the credit bureaus again once the pause lapsed, a change that has made quarter-over-quarter comparisons for the category harder to read.

When charged-off debt is excluded, new credit card delinquencies have held at around 3% of balances since 2024, with the most recent reading at 2.95%. Credit card debt that reached 90 days past due accounted for 6.97% of balances in the latest quarter, while balances beyond 90 days past due stood at 2.3%.

The New York Fed also noted in its analysis that, from the third quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2026, the percentage of credit card balances more than 90 days delinquent increased from 7.6% to 12.8%. That stock figure includes charged-off debt, an inclusion that economists said distinguishes it from the flows into delinquency, which point to a relatively steady level of consumer health.

New York Fed economists said they found the "stock delinquency rate is rising because of a pool of stale, charged-off debts that lenders have been reporting for longer durations, rather than a fundamental worsening in the incidence of delinquency." The next installment of the quarterly report will show whether the slight upward drift in flows into serious delinquency for auto loans and mortgages continues, or whether the broader stability in new delinquency rates extends into the second half of 2026.