Hello, San Antonio! Seniors residing in this Texas city have the have the largest non-mortgage debt balances.
Those were the findings from a study by LendingTree. The site, an online loan marketplace, analyzed the data of more than 75,000 of its users.
Excluding mortgages, residents of San Antonio between 65 and 70 years of age carried a median debt balance of $29,993, LendingTree found.
It must be a Texas thing: Austin followed in second place, with older residents had a median debt balance of $26,424.
Houston rounded out the top three: Residents in the 65 to 70 age cohort had a median debt balance of $26,219.
Auto loans make up the lion’s share of debt for these seniors, LendingTree found.
On average, more than 45 percent of the median balance owed by older individuals in San Antonio was attributable to car loans.
“My personal theory is that it’s trucks; they’re expensive,” said Kalie McFadden, senior research analyst at LendingTree.
“One thing that people tend to overlook is the premium for brand new cars,” she said.
“People used to take out a standard car loan of 60 months, but now the average loan is pushing up,” said McFadden.
In fact, as of the third quarter in 2018, the average term on a loan for a new car was nearly 69 months — or five years and nine months — according to Experian.
Meanwhile, the average monthly payment has hit a high of $530, up $28 from the prior year, Experian found. Interest rates also vary wildly, swinging from 3 percent to more than 10 percent, based largely on your credit score, according to ValuePenguin.
“That $30,000 car doesn’t cost you $30,000 if you take out a loan,” said McFadden.
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