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New York Fed Says Overall, Americans' Credit Health Has Improved

newyorkfed.org

The Federal Reserve Bank of  New York is out with a report on the country’s well-being when it comes to how Americans are doing in terms of credit availability and the overall health of their credit lines.

The study covers data from 2006 through 2016, and it shows that while results vary by region, in general, more Americans are able to get credit, and more of them are paying their bills on time.

Kausar Hamdani  is a Senior Advisor and Senior Vice President in the Communications & Outreach group for the New York Fed.

She says this data is just one way to look at the nation’s financial health.

“Bear in mind that no one indicator is probably sufficient to give you the picture. You want to take a look at all the variety of indicators that look at this issue from different aspects, and together they may give you a better sense as to what is happening on the ground," she told WXXI News.

Hamdani says since the recession, many communities have seen an improvement in the credit well-being of their citizens:

“They didn’t really hit their bottom until 2012 and since then they all have been coming up . I did check with Monroe County and it exhibits a similar pattern, although Monroe County didn’t go down quite as much as some of the others, so it held more steady.”

In terms of Monroe County, the report shows that the credit availability for local residents and their credit scores did better last year than the nation and the state overall.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.