More than 7 million Americans are 90 days or more behind on their auto loan payments, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported yesterday, even more than during the wake of the financial crisis, the Washington Post reported. The New York Fed said that there were over a million more “troubled borrowers” at the end of 2018 than there were in 2010, when unemployment hit 10 percent and the auto loan delinquency rate peaked. Auto loans surged in the past several years as car sales skyrocketed, hitting a record high in 2016 of 17.5 million vehicles sold in the United States. Overall, many borrowers have strong credit scores and repay their loans on time, but defaults have been high among “subprime” borrowers with credit scores under 620 on an 800-point scale. Click here to read the NY Fed report.
