Household mortgage debt rose 0.9% again in the month of August, a rise of $15.0 billion from the previous month. While growth remained relatively strong, it has eased from previous quarters, when the pace of borrowing reached record levels. The slower pace of mortgage borrowing was accompanied by a fifth consecutive monthly decline in the volume of existing home sales. However, compared with August 2020, mortgage borrowing was up 9.7% as households added more mortgage debt in the first 8 months of 2021 than in all 12 months of 2020.
Non-mortgage debt grew 0.6% in August to reach $798.2 billion. Credit card debt and lines of credit with chartered banks were the main contributors to the increase. With credit card debt reaching $78.3 billion at the end of August, this form of debt continued to move closer to the outstanding balance of $88.7 billion that households had before the pandemic began. Lines of credit rose by $1.9 billion, but the increase was mainly attributable to strength in home equity lines of credit.
Overall, the total credit liabilities of households reached $2,568.7 billion in August, a 0.8% increase from July. Real estate secured debt, composed of both mortgage debt and home equity lines of credit, rose 0.8% (+$16.8 billion) to reach $2,039.0 billion.