Millennials in San Antonio are shouldering the most non mortgage debt of young adults in any city in the USA, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The average Millennial in San Antonio, generally described as a person who was born between 1982 and 1999, has $27,122 in non mortgage related debt.
The biggest chunk of that debt is in student loans and car loans
."Credit card debt of course and personal debt, a lot of young people have that too," a Lending Tree spokeswoman told News Radio 1200 WOAI.
That figure flies in the face of San Antonio's image as a low cost community. In fact, Austin, Dallas and Houston are all in the top ten for the most non mortgage debt by Millennials.
This explains why apartment construction is so common around San Antonio. Young people don't have enough cash to make a down payments on a house, let alone make the monthly mortgage payments.
"They are not everywhere, and in San Antonio, auto loans are the biggest category of debt," the spokeswoman said.
In fact, 43% of Millennial debt in San Antonio is on auto loans.
Having such a large and growing part of San Antonio's economy shouldering so much debt, and having none of that debt in equity building investments like a house, is bad for the future of the city and for the local economy.