The Great Expansion of 2019 and the Delinquency Rates of Blacks and Hispanics

During a period of increasing prosperity, the U.S. debt delinquency rate decreased between 2016 and 2019, with a relatively large decrease for Asians households and somewhat smaller decrease for Blacks and Whites, while the rate for Hispanics stayed constant. Blacks were more likely to be delinquent than Whites and Hispanics. Controlling for household characteristics, there was not a significant year effect for delinquency, suggesting that changes in household characteristics accounted for the overall decrease between 2016 and 2019. Additional analyses showed the Black delinquency rate in 2016 was not significantly different from the White rate, but was higher than the White rate in 2019. In both years, Hispanics had lower delinquency rates than Blacks. We discuss possible explanations for the differences between Hispanics and Blacks