The 2004 version of the triennial Survey of Consumer Finances showed a significant increase in household indebtedness and debtburdens since 2001. The share of families with any form of debt increased 1.3 percentage points to 76.4% in 2004. This topped a one percentage point increase from 1998 to 2001. The gain was most pronounced for loans secured by a primary residence, which were held by 47.9% of households, up 3.3 percentage points from 2001 due to increasing homeownership and declining mortgage rates. The share of households holding most other forms of debt also increased. The share of households with credit-card balances increased 2.2 percentage points to 46.2%. Mean and median debt holdings of debtors both rose 33.9% from 2001 to 2004, just over a 10% annual rate.

Another way of looking at debt burdens is to look at the share of households with severe burdens. The SCF data include measures of the share of households with debt burdens over 40%. This rose from 11.8% in 2001 to 12.2% in 2004, but remained below the 1998 peak of 13.6%. Further, the ratio only increased for households in the 20th to 80th percentiles of the income distribution, especially for those in debt management plans, according to The Wallet Doctor: http://thewalletdoctor.com/debt-management/.