According to U.S. Census 2020-2021 estimates, Seattle has more than 730,000 residents as of July 2021. This makes it one of America’s 20 largest cities. Credit Karma data, which was available as of Aug. 17, 2022 shows that the average debt for the 154,739 Credit Karma members living in Seattle is $98,756. This includes auto loans, auto leases as well as student loans, student loans, mortgages, credit cards balances and medical debt. (Click here to see the complete methodology.
Continue reading to see a snapshot on Seattle’s debt.
Snapshot of Credit Karma Stat
Total debt in Seattle
Credit Karma members in Seattle had a total debt of $26.4 billion. The average total debt of individuals was $98,756. The median overall debt in Seattle was $10,114. This makes Seattle’s gap between the average and median total debt among the 100 largest U.S. cities. This debt has an average next payment of $700.
Credit Karma members have an average national debt of $49,454 and a median of $11,223.
Seattle’s debt dial
Image: seattle-debt-dial
Student loans, auto loans, mortgages, and credit card debt in Seattle
Below is a table that shows the averages and medians of different types debts among Credit Karma members in Seattle.
|
Debt type |
Credit Karma members who have debt type |
Average debt |
Median debt |
Average next payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto loan | 86,524 | $22,035 | $17,625 | $539 |
| Student loan | 58,281 | $37,419 | $18,029 | $75 |
| Hypothec Mortgage | 54,710 | $515,435 | $439,307 | $3,068 |
| Credit card | 151,354 | $7,146 | $3,386 | $179 |
How does Seattle’s population compare with the national average? Below is a table that compares the national average to the averages for Credit Karma members in Seattle.
|
Debt type |
Average national credit of Credit Karma members |
Cleveland member average debt |
|---|---|---|
| Auto loan | $24,042 | $22,035 |
| Student loan | $32,004 | $37,419 |
| Hypothec Mortgage | $235,194 | $515,435 |
| Credit card | $6,469 | $7,146 |
Credit Karma members in Seattle had greater debt than the national average in three categories: student loans, mortgage debt, and credit card debt. Only members with auto loans in Seattle have an average of less than the national average.
Where does Seattle rank in comparison to other cities?
We compared the average Credit Karma member living in 100 top cities by population, according to U.S. Census population estimates for 2021.
Credit Karma members rank Seattle as the fourth-highest average debt out of 100 cities. Seattle is one the five cities with an average debt greater than $90,000.
Here are the rankings of Seattle residents compared to other top 100 American cities.
- Auto loan debt 69th
- Credit card debt: 16th highest
- Student loan debt: 14th highest
- Mortgage debt: 7th highest
Credit inquiries, past-due accounts and credit inquiries in Seattle
Credit Karma members in Seattle had an average VantageScore 3.0 credit score of 718, while the median score was 745. Both are good. Credit Karma members had a national average VantageScore 3.0 of 673 and a median score of 682.
On average, Seattle residents had 3.3 credit inquiries per month. The national average was 4.2.
Average Seattle residents have 0.38 accounts that are 30 days late. Nationally, the average account is 0.74.
Methodology
We analyzed the credit cards of around 306,000 Credit Karma members who were active within the past 36 months to determine the averages for each type of debt. This included auto lease, auto loan and credit card. The averages were calculated using information from TransUnion credit reports for members from the 90-day period prior to data pull on Aug. 17, 2022. This analysis includes auto lease, credit card, student loan, mortgage, credit card, and auto loan. Unpaid balances on open accounts at the time of data pull are all included. All numbers were round to the nearest whole in this report.
All data in this article were pulled Aug. 17, 2022.