Baby Boomers Carry Less Debt In 2 Michigan Cities: Study

MICHIGAN — When it comes to carry debt, the baby boomer generation fares well in Michigan, according to a new study.

Specifically in Detroit, baby boomers carry $21,110 in debt -- the second lowest amount of debt in the country. Grand Rapids ranks third on the list.

LendingTree analyzed anonymized credit report data of people born between 1946 and 1964 who live in the 100 biggest metros to find the cities where baby boomers carry the most and least amount of debt.

Baby boomers owe a median total of $25,187 on non-mortgage debts -- auto loans and credit card balances account for the largest share of these balances. In Detroit, baby boomers carry $21,110 in debt - 35% of that is in auto loans and 36% is credit card debt.

In Grand Rapids, baby boomers carry $21,181 in debt.

Here are some of the other key findings in the study:

• Baby boomers in Houston are the most laden with non-mortgage debt, with a median balance of $31,626. On average, 42.9% of that is owed on auto loans and another 33.1% is on credit cards.
• Little Rock, Ark. and San Antonio round out the top three, with median non-mortgage balances of $30,767 and $29,985, respectively.
• On the other end of the spectrum, boomers in Oxnard, Calif. have median non-mortgage balances of $20,876. Forty-one percent of that is on credit cards and 37.6% in auto loans, on average.
• Boomers in Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich. carry the next-lowest median balances at $21,110 and $21,181, respectively.
• Auto loans comprise the biggest section of boomer debt, averaging 38.5% of average debt across the 100 metros we reviewed.
• Credit cards represented the next-largest slice of baby boomers’ debt balances, averaging 34.9% across the 100 metros.
• As with our other generational debt studies, Texas rules the top of the list for median balances. Five of the six Texas metros we reviewed fall in the top 10 (El Paso comes in 36th on the list).

You can view the full study here: Cities Where Baby Boomers Carry the Most/Least Debt