Americans are drowning in debt and our country continues to go down the tubes? Assuming a 7% interest rate, to service 300K of debt costs 21K a year! This requires roughly 30K of gross income to pay just the interest. And if you consider that the avg income is around 40K, that means 75% of one's disposable income is used to pay interest on debt. Unbelievable! Is it no wonder why the banks run this country?

I'm not surprised at this amount of debt. Just take a look around at the type of people living in South Florida. It's an extremely shallow and superficial group of people whose primary focus is keeping up with all of the latest trends, whether they can afford to or not. There are a lot of people here who are making an average salary who really can't afford the boats, fancy cars, huge homes, huge lips and huge boobs.

If people would live within their means, and that's something that varies from person to person, the economy wouldn't be in such a mess and people wouldn't have such massive debt. I make an average salary but have NO debt...I paid my way through several college degrees, I have a nice (though small) house, a nice car and a small boat. I live comfortably but not extravagantly. If I can't afford something, I don't buy it. I'll never have a mansion on the beach, or a big yacht or expensive cars..but is it really that important? I'd rather live debt-free.

I don't know if this is true information. Between myself, relatives and friends, that is a large group of people. We all pay off our credit cards monthly.

I barely use my credit cards and my car loan is half that of this article's estimate. Unlike many South Floridians, I don't "keep up with the Jones" with a fancy SUV and designer clothes. However, my debt is from my underwater home. I owe $130,000 more than the house is worth, because I moved here and bought during the bubble.

To add to my comments above, bankruptcies are on the upswing in South Florida, as they should be. I was just listening to NPR this morning, and our foreclosure rate is the highest in the nation. 60% of homeowners in South Florida are upside down on their mortgages. Borrowers who owe way more on their home than it is worth and have a big equity line, can have that equity line discharged in bankrupcty. Others who have first mortgages only, but are way underwater, will need to short sale or walk away from their homes and then file for bankruptcy to remove the lender's ability to come after the deficiency.

Testing comments

Oh yeah, it's true. Here's my info:

First Mortgage: $212,000
Second Mortgage: $38,000
Credit Card debt: $47,000
Car loans: $16,000
Total Debt: $313,000

Yearly Income: $50,000 (me) and $25,000 (my wife)

I had to make sure this was an anonymous post before I posted.

I'm not making any excuses and don't want any pity. It's just what it is and I'm dealing with it one payment at a time.

$22,0478
$2,9260

What planet are you from? Here on Earth we write those numbers as $220,478 and $29,260 respectively. No wonder this country is so screwed up with this level of ignorance from a journalist no less.

Albert, hit the update button. I moved the comma right after I saw the error. No need to be so nasty. It's not okay to talk that way.

The reason why So Fla home equity loans are higher than the rest of the nation is because we felt the "richest" during the real estate bubble. Our home values zoomed up, so we felt rich and entitled to that paper "equity." Obviously, people who short-sightedly thought homes would never come down felt comfortable borrowing against their homes because they figured, "oh, I'll just refinance again when prices double in 2 years."
We all know how this story ends.

Actually this is misconstrued data --the article conflicts itself when it says --that this reflects "all consumers" --but draws the data on 1,150 credit reports.

This is not reflective of "all consumers" --just those with credit reports -- which would include homeowners, etc, but not the wife and kid, grandma/pa if they own their condo outright. Nevermind the 1/3 of society that doesn't even have a bank account, and just rents.

So the best thing this data can be attributed --is that for consumers with home credit - this is a typical profile.

I fit the profile AMOUNT exactly --w/o a home equity, w/0 a student loan, w/o a auto loan, and w/o credit card debt - i just took =out a jumbo loan 7 years ago - and the payoff is 343k - i preferred to put my money in a good investment - and the house is still worth far more than I paid for it -and far far more than the debt on it.

But to do that invesmtment in a prime area I paid off all the other debt long ago - Just to get ONE big one to live in.

So its not all bad news.

.

meanwhile the girlfriend has zero debt and splits the bills - which proves this data false - a two person consumer unit has 1/2 of the debt profile they puport is the typical consumer

ya have to take this sort of information with a a big grain of salt --and ask what is the agenda - and how did they skew the data?

It might as well be a billion dollars because I'm not paying anyway!

The total amount owed is my badge of honor! Imagine those fools who paid their bills and now are suffering because I didn't.

They are the losers. They lost the opportunity to live like the Great Gatsby during the "crooked years".

Go Sarah, 2012 is coming.

A BIG ZERO......NONE

Florida Housing still has another 40% to drop By 2011,Better all get rid of those SUV's and BIG T'vs....
yyyyyyyyeeeeehawwwwwwwww