an accumulation of household debt and a downturn in house prices has a substantial adverse impact on consumption. …

Drawing on the 2013 Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) and complementary administrative data sources, we … simulate household balance sheets at the micro level for the 2005-14 period. We use this dataset to tell the story of household …. Notwithstanding historically low interest rates, we show that income shocks are the main factor contributing to mortgage repayment …