Residents in Nye County ranked high for keeping their credit card debt low.
Nye County ranked No. 5 in a recent study from SmartAsset, a financial technology company that has an online portal for those seeking information and advice on personal finance, for Nevada counties with the lowest credit card debt per capita.
Nye carried a “Lowest Credit Card Debt Index” of 73.27 on a scale of 100, with higher scores indicating better health, according to the study released earlier this month.
The other top four counties in Nevada tracked by SmartAsset were Douglas County residents, who had an index of 85.09 (No. 1). Douglas was followed by No. 2-ranked Humboldt County, 83.69; No. 3-ranked Elko County, 81.24; and No. 4-ranked Carson City, 74.49.
SmartAsset used multiple calculations to arrive at an index for the counties it tracked across the U.S. The company’s overall goal was to find places in the U.S. with the least credit card debt.
SmartAsset calculated the ratio of credit card debt to a per capita income for each of the counties it studied.
“This number can serve as insight into whether people will be able to pay off that debt,” information on SmartAsset’s website stated.
SmartAsset “also calculated the ratio of credit card debt to net wealth per capita for each county,” according to information on its website. “This measure provides a broader picture of an area’s financial stability.”
“Finally, we indexed each factor and calculated an overall index by taking a weighted average of each of these indexes,” SmartAsset’s website stated. “The credit card to income index was given a weight of one and the credit card to net wealth index was given a weight of two. The places with the highest overall index value ranked the highest.”
On a national level, Nye County ranked 1,829 out of the counties tracked.
Credit card debt per capita in Nye County was $3,367, according to the study. Credit card debt in Nye County as a percentage of income was 14.2% and credit card debt as a percentage of wealth was 11.6%.
The No. 1 ranked county in the U.S. was Wabash County in Illinois.
Wabash had a ranking, index, of 100. The credit card debt per capita was $1,295 in Wabash. Credit card debt in Wabash County as a percentage of income was 5.2% and credit card debt as a percentage of wealth was 4.6%.
The No. 2 highest ranked county for the lowest credit card debt was Los Alamos County in New Mexico.
A large number of the highest-ranking counties were in the Midwest and further east, except for the high ranking in New Mexico and Teton County in Wyoming, which was ranked No. 9 nationally in SmartAsset’s study.
U.S. consumer debt
U.S. household debt, including credit cards, has been on the rise in recent years.
In a second-quarter report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, “Total Household Debt Climbs for the 20th Straight Quarter as Mortgage Debt and Originations Rise,” it was stated that household debt in the U.S. reached $13.86 trillion—an increase of $192 billion or 1.4% over the previous quarter.
“It was the 20th consecutive quarter with an increase, and the total is now $1.2 trillion higher, in nominal terms, than the previous peak of $12.68 trillion in the third quarter of 2008,” the report stated.
The data in the Federal Reserve Bank’s report “is based on data from the New York Fed’s Consumer Credit Panel, a national representative sample of individual- and household-level debt and credit records drawn from anonymized Equifax credit data,” the report stated.
Delinquency in credit cards has been on the rise.
“… The share of credit card balances transitioning into 90-plus day delinquency rose to 5.2% from 5.0% last quarter, at an annual rate, continuing an upward trend that began in 2017,” the report stated.
Credit card debt for the U.S. rose to $868 billion in the second quarter from $848 billion in the first quarter of 2019—a rise of $20 billion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s second-quarter report.
The second-quarter number was also up from the second quarter of 2018 by $39 billion, according to the report.
Other components of household debt have also been on the rise.
“Mortgage balances—the largest component of household debt—rose by $162 billion in the second quarter to $9.4 trillion, surpassing the high of $9.3 trillion in the third quarter of 2008,” the report stated. “Mortgage originations, which include mortgage refinances, also increased by $130 billion to $474 billion, the highest volume seen since the third quarter of 2017.”
“While nominal mortgage balances are now slightly above the previous peak seen in the third quarter of 2008, mortgage delinquencies and the average credit profile of mortgage borrowers have continued to improve,” said Wilbert van der Klaauw, senior vice president at the New York Fed in a mid-August report. “The data suggest a more nuanced picture for other forms of household debt, with credit card delinquency rates continuing to rise.”
Contact reporter Jeffrey Meehan at jmeehan@pvtimes.com on Twitter @MeehanLv