Accordingly, the aggregate household debt service burden, defined as the ratio of households’ required debt payments to their disposable personal income, rose considerably in recent years, returning last year to close to its previous cyclical peak of the mid-1980s, where it has remained. Neither wealth nor the burden of debt is distributed evenly across households.
Hence, the spending effects of changes in these influences also will not be evenly distributed. For example, increased debt burdens appear disproportionately attributable to higher-income households.