US Credit Card Debt Shatters $1,280,000,000,000 As Goldman Sachs Warns Americans Facing ‘Affordability Problem’

US credit card debt is mounting as banking giant Goldman Sachs warns Americans are facing an affordability crisis.

New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows American credit card debt increased by $44 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, hitting $1.28 trillion.

Meanwhile, mortgage balances ballooned by $98 billion to reach $13.2 trillion.

In a new video update, Goldman Sachs chief US economist David Mericle says figures like these highlight the financial pressure many Americans are dealing with.

“It is clear that we have an affordability problem in housing, especially owner-occupied housing. In the rental market, it’s true that the share of income for a typical family that rents is somewhat higher than it has been on average historically…

But it’s really the cost of financing your own single family owner-occupied housing that stands out by historical standards. Prices have risen a lot. Now mortgages have risen as well and both the down payment as a share of income and the mortgage financing cost as a share of income are now both quite high by historical standards.”

Mericle says rising housing costs hurt Americans in more ways than one.

“Owner-occupied housing is special in two senses. One, especially for lower-income households, housing is the primary – and sometimes the only – way they build wealth.

[The] second reason is that housing is not just any other consumer good in that housing is often a gateway to social mobility and many areas with better schools and job opportunities. The great bulk of the housing stock is single family owner-occupied housing, especially if you have a larger family, it’s just not realistic oftentimes to rent in those areas.

And so lack of access to single-family housing could also mean lack of access to good schools, jobs and social mobility.”

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