{"id":6697,"date":"2022-05-12T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=6697"},"modified":"2022-05-11T09:33:59","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T14:33:59","slug":"consumer-debt-soared-by-52-billion-in-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=6697","title":{"rendered":"Consumer Debt Soared by $52 Billion in March"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/debt-4.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"120\" height=\"111\" src=\"http:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/debt-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2513\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Consumer debt levels for March 2022 rose by $52.4 billion, an annual increase of 14%, seasonally adjusted, according to Federal Reserve data. Revolving credit, which includes credit cards, grew 21.4%. Despite strong wage growth\u2014average hourly earnings grew 5.5% in the last 12 months\u2014consumers are seeing these gains offset by the highest inflation in 40 years. The cost of food has risen about 9% over the past year, and a gallon of gas now averages $4.279 at the pump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Federal Reserve recently announced a half-point rate hike as part of a series of actions aimed at tackling runaway inflation. This means that interest rates on everything from credit cards to car loans will rise, putting further pressure on the household budget. &#8220;All of this newfound debt that Americans have is only going to get more and more expensive in the coming months,&#8221; said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst for Lending Tree. The rise in debt levels is likely driven by two factors, Schulz said. First, there is some pent-up spending after lockdown. Then there are other cash-strapped individuals who are turning to credit cards to pay for basic needs that have grown more expensive, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Struggling with debt? You have options. Call our office at 816-524-4949 or <a href=\"https:\/\/calendly.com\/hoorfarlaw\">click here<\/a> to schedule a free consultation.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Consumer debt levels for March 2022 rose by $52.4 billion, an annual increase of 14%, seasonally adjusted, according to Federal Reserve data. Revolving credit, which includes credit cards, grew 21.4%. Despite strong wage growth\u2014average hourly earnings grew 5.5% in the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/?p=6697\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1133,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-debt","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6700,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6697\/revisions\/6700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoorfarlaw.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}