Fed SCF: median income rises to $82,200 as loan delinquencies climb

The Federal Reserve on Friday released the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, showing real median family income up 7% to $82,200 between the 2022 and 2025 surveys while real mean income fell 6% to $145,200, and reporting a sharp rise in families behind on loan payments.

The Board's triennial survey, conducted with NORC at the University of Chicago, is the Fed's detailed look at what U.S. families own, how they borrow, and how they bank. Alongside the data, the Board published Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025. Dollar amounts in the release are in 2025 dollars.

Real median net worth rose 2% to $215,900, while real mean net worth rose 7% to $1.24 million. The Fed said most families across the net worth and income distributions saw increases in median and mean wealth, and that on balance wealth inequality appeared little changed since 2022. The summary report notes that wealth changes still reinforced familiar gaps: younger families, renters, and families without a high school diploma often saw median wealth declines, while older and higher-wealth families posted some of the larger gains.

Homes, retirement accounts, and stock ownership

The homeownership rate was 66% in 2025, about unchanged from 2022. For families that owned a home, median net housing value — home value minus home-secured debt — rose to $230,000 from $218,900. Retirement-plan participation, covering account-type plans, IRAs, or defined benefit plans, was up slightly at around 65%, and balances rose for families with account-type plans. Stock-market participation, including direct and indirect holdings, slipped from 58% in 2022 to 56% in 2025; among stock holders, median holdings grew 36% to $77,400 from $56,900.

Debt loads stable, payment stress higher

The share of families with any debt stayed about 77%, and the Fed said median and mean debt outstanding were unchanged from 2022. Payment stress rose anyway. The share of families with debt payment-to-income ratios above 40% increased from 6.5% to 8.6%, a level last seen in the 2013 survey. The summary report says families were more likely to be behind on financial obligations than at any point since the 2010 survey: the share reporting being behind on loan payments rose from about 12% to almost 20%, and more than 8% reported being two months late or more, up from 5% in 2022.

Primary-residence secured debt also rose among families that had it. About 42% of families held that debt in both survey years, while among those families the median balance increased to $183,600 from $170,200. Credit-card debt shares were about unchanged at 45%, with the median balance up $150 to $3,100. Student-debt participation fell 2 percentage points to 20%, and balances among those with student debt declined.

What this does not settle

The SCF is a triennial snapshot, not a monthly labor or inflation print, and it does not by itself set the path for the next FOMC decision. It also does not measure week-to-week spending. Readers still need the next CPI, bank-earnings commentary, and later soft surveys to judge how today's balance-sheet and delinquency picture is showing up in current demand. Until then, the cleanest read from Friday's primary is the split the Fed itself stressed: moderate gains in median income and wealth for many families, alongside a larger share carrying high payment burdens or falling behind on loans.