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February 27th, 2025, Berkeley, CA — The nonpartisan California Policy Lab posted updated data to the California Credit Dashboard today, with data through the end of December 2024.
“We are seeing increasing signs of financial strain,” explains Evan White, Executive Director of the California Policy Lab’s UC Berkeley site, and a member of the research team that created and maintains the dashboard. “Over the past year, auto and card delinquencies have been higher than any point since the Great Recession. People are also using more of their available credit – all signs that households are struggling to make ends meet.”
Not all regions are experiencing the pain equally. Credit conditions are worsening more in California’s Central Valley (San Joaquin Valley, Greater Sacramento, and Northern Sacramento Valley) than in the coastal metros. Delinquency rates there rose 18% (or 0.9 %-points) more since pandemic lows than in the regions around Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
The Dashboard’s California Financial Trends snapshot shows how recent changes in credit scores, delinquencies, monthly payments, and new loan amounts compare to the previous quarter, the same quarter 1 year ago, 5 years ago, and 10 years ago.
3 trends from the latest data:
Card utilization highest in a decade: Consumers are using a higher portion of their available credit card limits than at any point in the last decade. Seasonally adjusted card utilization stands at 27.5%, a level not seen since 2013. This indicates that household balance sheets may be getting more constrained. See more.
High delinquencies in card and auto: Seasonally adjusted credit card delinquencies are at 4.5%, down slightly from last summer but still much higher than any point over the last decade. Auto delinquencies are at 2.9%, and rising. See more.
Average home equity debt is rising: Homeowners are also drawing more on their home’s equity. The average home equity balance rose to $90,900 in Q4, up 2.2% from a year ago. Monthly home equity payments have also risen 4.7% year over year to $734 per month. See more.
See additional trends on the Financial Trends snapshot.
California Credit Dashboard: Insights into Californians’ Financial Health
The interactive Dashboard includes 10 longitudinal charts for 6 types of debt (auto, credit card, home equity, mortgage, student, and other) and collections. The 10 figures can be sorted by 7 age groups, 9 economic regions, and 5 credit ratings. The Dashboard also includes 4 county-level maps which can be filtered by generation, loan type, credit score, and timeframe (2004 to present).
Using the interactive the maps, users can compare:
- Delinquency rates
- New loan amounts
- Monthly payments
- Credit score trends
Notes:
- The CCD shows a large decline in student loan balances starting in Q3 2024. We investigated this and believe it may be a data anomaly in the data furnished to the credit bureau, rather than a true reflection of student loan balances.
- The California Policy Lab’s Data Point, Introducing the California Credit Dashboard, shows examples of how the figures can be adjusted to show differences by region, generation, and credit ratings.
More about the California Credit Dashboard
The Dashboard uses credit-bureau data from the University of California Consumer Credit Panel. All figures in the Dashboard are based on a 2% random sample of individuals. Where applicable, the results are multiplied by 50 to obtain the full-population estimate. A technical appendix provides detailed information about the data and underlying research. Several dozen faculty and graduate students from the University of California currently use this dataset for research.
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The California Policy Lab is an institute based at the University of California that generates research insights for government impact. Through hands-on partnerships with government agencies, CPL performs rigorous research across issue silos and builds the data infrastructure necessary to improve programs and policies that millions of Californians rely on every day.