Los Angeles is America’s second-largest city, home to more than 3.8 million people, according to 2020–2021 U.S. Census estimates. According to Credit Karma data from Aug. 17, 2022, the average overall debt of the 523,603 Credit Karma members who live in Los Angeles is $62,323. Overall debt is made up of auto loans, auto leases, student loans, mortgages, credit card balances and medical debt. (Click here for the full methodology.)
Read on to see a snapshot of debt in Los Angeles.
Overall debt in Los Angeles
The 523,603 Credit Karma members living in Los Angeles held a combined total debt of about $52.5 billion. The average overall debt for individuals was $62,323. But the median overall debt was only $8,654, suggesting that a small number of members held significantly more debt than most, resulting in the average being pulled upward. The average next payment on the overall debt is $509.
In comparison, the national average debt for Credit Karma members is $49,454, and the median is $11,223.
Los Angeles’ debt dial
Image: ladebtgauge-1Auto loans, student loans, mortgage and credit card debt in Los Angeles
The table that follows contains averages and medians for different types of debt among Credit Karma members in Los Angeles.
| Debt type | Number of Credit Karma members with debt type | Average debt | Median debt | Average next payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto loan | 295,326 | $24,104 | $19,254 | $582 |
| Student loan | 170,318 | $35,038 | $14,747 | $50 |
| Mortgage | 94,301 | $544,641 | $422,503 | $3,061 |
| Credit card | 508,540 | $6,837 | $3,230 | $186 |
So how do residents of Los Angeles compare to the national member averages? The table that follows compares the national average against the averages in Los Angeles among Credit Karma members.
| Debt type | National average debt of Credit Karma members | Los Angeles member average debt |
|---|---|---|
| Auto loan | $24,042 | $24,104 |
| Student loan | $32,004 | $35,038 |
| Mortgage | $235,194 | $544,641 |
| Credit card | $6,469 | $6,837 |
Overall, Credit Karma members in Los Angeles had more debt than the national average in all categories of debt. Most notably, out of the 100 largest U.S. cities, Los Angeles has the fifth-highest mortgage debt on average.
How does Los Angeles rank against other cities?
We compared averages for Credit Karma members living in the top 100 cities by population according to 2021 U.S. Census population estimates.
Out of the top 100 cities, members in Los Angeles had the 21st highest overall average debt. The overall average debt of Credit Karma members in Los Angeles puts it in between Glendale, California, where members have an average of $62,549 in overall debt, and Reno, Nevada, where members have an average of $61,223 in overall debt.
Here’s how Los Angeles members ranked among the top 100 cities in America by population.
- Auto loan debt: 41st highest
- Credit card debt: 24th highest
- Student loan debt: 25th highest
- Mortgage debt: 5th highest
Credit, inquiries and past-due accounts in Los Angeles
Among Credit Karma members in Los Angeles, the average VantageScore 3.0 credit score was 677 and the median was 687, both of which are considered good. The national average VantageScore 3.0 for Credit Karma members was 673, while the median was 682.
Los Angeles members had an average of 3.8 inquiries on their credit reports, while the national average was 4.2.
Residents of Los Angeles average 0.64 accounts that were 30 days past due. The national average is 0.74 accounts.
Methodology
To determine averages across categories of debt — including auto lease, auto loan, credit card, mortgage, student loan, medical and total debt — we analyzed the accounts of about 523,000 Credit Karma members living in Los Angeles who had been active on the site within the last 36 months. Averages were based on information from members’ TransUnion credit reports from the 90 days previous to the data pull, which was on Aug. 17, 2022. For the purposes of this analysis, auto lease, auto loan, credit card, mortgage, medical and student loan debt is defined as any unpaid balances existing on members’ open accounts in aggregate at the time the data was pulled. All numbers in this report were rounded to the nearest whole.
Note that all data for this article were pulled on Aug. 17, 2022.