Median Family Wealth Rose to $215,900. One in Five Families Still Fell Behind on Payments.

Quick answer

The Federal Reserve's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, released October 9, 2026, shows that the typical American family got richer on paper between 2022 and 2025 and also fell behind on bills more often. Median net worth (the middle family) rose 2% after inflation, to $215,900. The share of families late on a loan payment rose from 12.2% to 19.6%. Most of the new wealth sits in houses, stocks and retirement accounts, which cannot cover a bill that is due this week.

Lena Ortiz paid $2,400 for a new transmission last week. She had $1,100 in her checking account. Her house, bought in 2019 with a 3.1% mortgage, was worth far more than she paid for it. None of that helped at the repair shop, so the bill went on a credit card charging 21.4%.

(Lena is a composite. The story is illustrative. The numbers come from the Federal Reserve.)

Her week is a small version of what the Fed just measured. Across the country, families own more and are also late more often. The two facts look like a contradiction. They are not, and the reason matters for anyone who holds most of their money in a home or a retirement account.

What the Fed measured between 2022 and 2025

The Survey of Consumer Finances is the Fed's main look at family balance sheets. It runs every three years and asks thousands of families what they own, owe and earn. The 2025 results, in the Fed's summary report (Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025), show two stories at once.

The 2022 net worth figure comes from the Fed's 2% change. The 2022 income, card balance and checking figures are derived from the Fed's stated changes (up 7%, up $150, down 6%) and are rounded. The 2025 figures are as the Fed printed them.

How late payments have changed since 2013

The Fed's table of debt problems goes back to 2013, which gives a real before. For ten years the share of families behind on a payment slid down or stayed flat. Then it jumped.

Share of families, 2013 to 2025. Source: Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances, Table 5.

From 2013 to 2022 the late-payment rate fell from 14.9% to 12.2%. In 2025 it hit 19.6%, which the Fed calls the highest since the 2010 survey. The share paying more than 40% of their income on debt also rose, from 6.5% to 8.6%, the largest since 2010.

Why rising wealth did not prevent late payments

Three things changed at once between 2022 and 2025.

Borrowing got more expensive. The Fed reports that the average 30-year mortgage rate rose from 4.2% to 6.7%, the average new-car loan rate from 4.9% to 7.7%, and the average credit card rate from 14.6% to 21.4%. On the median $3,100 card balance, that move alone adds about $210 a year in interest.

The wealth is hard to spend. Median net worth for homeowners rose 6% to $458,900. Renters saw a 7% drop, to $10,600. A homeowner's gain is mostly house value, and the Fed notes that families may have money "tied in illiquid assets", meaning assets that cannot be turned into cash quickly. Borrowing against a house also means a new loan at today's rates. About half of all US mortgages still carry a rate under 4%, according to FHFA data reported by Wolf Street. Lena's 3.1% mortgage is one of them. Trading it for a roughly 6.7% loan to get cash would raise her monthly payment, so it is not a real option for a $2,400 repair.

The cash cushion shrank. The median checking and savings balance fell 6% to $8,200. That is the middle family among those who have an account. Half have less.

Put those together and a small shock behaves differently. Lena's $2,400 repair cannot come from the house. It cannot come from the savings account she does not have. It comes from the card. At $100 a month, a $2,400 balance at 21.4% takes about 32 months to clear and costs about $760 in interest. A few months of tight cash, one missed due date, and she becomes part of the 19.6%.

Buy Now, Pay Later shows the same pattern in a smaller form. The Fed found that 12% of families had a Buy Now, Pay Later balance in 2025, up from 7% in 2022. The median balance was only $400. Small installments are easy to say yes to, and each has its own due date. Our piece on why these plans hurt less than a card swipe covers the behavior behind it.

What makes the picture less bleak

The Fed's own numbers do not support the darkest reading, so it is worth saying what the survey does not show.

• Families look less stretched when debt is compared with what they own. The median ratio of debt to assets for families with debt was 26.9%, and it has fallen in every survey since 2013.
• The share of families with any debt held at about 77%, and the median debt held at $88,100.
• The share of families carrying a credit card balance barely moved, from 45.2% to 44.7%.
• Student debt fell. Fewer families have it (20.0%) and balances are smaller.
• "Behind" is what families told the survey. It counts any late payment in the past year, even one that was caught up within days. It does not say how many families are in deep trouble. The 60-days-or-more number, 8.2%, is the better measure of serious trouble.
• The survey cannot say why each family fell behind. The Fed links the higher payment burden to higher interest rates and notes that some families saw income drops.

So this is not a wave of families losing their homes. The Fed counted foreclosure starts in the past five years at 0.7%, up from 0.5%. It is a rise in smaller, more frequent money trouble, among families who look fine on a balance sheet.

Who gained and who lost

The gains were uneven, and the pattern explains the gap between wealth and late payments.

• Families older than 75 saw median net worth rise 37%, largely from higher retirement account values. Their median is now the highest of any age group.
• Families under 35 saw median net worth fall 23% to $33,000. The Fed says this mostly reflects business equity gains from 2019 to 2022 that later unwound, so it is not only a story about bills.
• Families in the lowest quarter of the wealth ranking saw median net worth fall from $3,800 to $1,700.
• Median wealth for Black families fell 25%.
• Top-income families gained: median net worth for the top 10% by income rose 31% to $3,669,900.
• The share of families owning stock fell from 58% to 56%, even though the median holding among those who own stock rose 36% to $77,400.

The median hides this. A family can be near the middle of the range, own a house, and still have no cash. That is Lena.

What to do with this

The survey is about all families, so it cannot tell you what to do in your own house. It does show where the weak point is for many: not total wealth, but how much cash a family can reach in a week.

• Count reachable cash. Add what is in checking and savings. Leave out retirement accounts, home equity and stock you would have to sell. That number, not your net worth, is what a repair bill meets.
• Keep a first cushion in a separate account. Put $1,000 to $2,500 in a savings account at a different bank from your checking account. The best savings accounts pay 4.27% right now (see current options on our savings page), but the cushion works even at a lower rate.
• Pay the high-rate card next. A card balance costs 21.4% on average. No savings account pays near that, so once the first cushion exists, extra money does more on the card. Our guide on the true cost of credit card debt shows the math for your balance.
• List every installment plan and due date. If you use Buy Now, Pay Later, put each due date on one calendar.
• Size your cushion to your life. Our emergency fund guide explains how many months of expenses fit different households.

For a fuller plan, the SwitchWize Money Map shows where your money sits and what it would earn elsewhere.

Starting this month, Lena sends $150 to the card and $100 to a savings account at a different bank. The card will be gone in about 19 months, and by then the savings account will hold about $1,900. The next repair will not go on the card.

Quick answers

What did the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances find? Median family net worth rose 2% to $215,900, and the share of families late on a loan payment rose from 12.2% to 19.6%, the highest since 2010.

Why are more families late if wealth rose? The wealth is mostly in homes and retirement accounts, borrowing costs rose (card rates from 14.6% to 21.4%), and the median checking and savings balance fell 6% to $8,200.

How much does the median card balance cost? About $660 a year in interest on $3,100 at the 21.4% average card rate, about $210 more than at 2022 rates.

Where is the weak point? Not total wealth. It is how much cash a family can reach in a week without borrowing.

Lena is a composite character. The story is illustrative; the numbers come from the Federal Reserve.

Sources

Federal Reserve Board, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances (October 9, 2026), including Table 5 (debt burdens and credit market experiences, 2013 to 2025), the net worth, debt and financial assets sections, and the average interest rates quoted in the Debt section. Federal Reserve Board press release, Federal Reserve Board releases results of the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances (October 9, 2026): median income, net worth, stock ownership and net housing value. Mortgage lock-in: FHFA National Mortgage Database figures as reported by Wolf Street (fourth quarter 2025, about half of outstanding mortgages under 4%). Dollar amounts from the survey are in 2025 dollars. The 2022 comparison figures marked "about" in the table are derived from the Fed's stated changes and rounded. Lena's loan math uses a standard amortization formula at a 21.4% annual rate with fixed monthly payments.