 TITLE: Mortgage Debt Sees Record Growth Despite Pandemic CONTENT: Consumers in Nearly All States Saw Mortgage Debt Increase\n---------------------------------------------------------\nAcross the country, individual mortgage balances increased in all but one state between 2019 and 2020. Only in Connecticut did consumer balances shrink—and just barely at that. The average mortgage debt in that state decreased by 0.3% in 2020.\nOverall, 36 states and the District of Columbia saw their mortgage debt increase at a rate of over 2% (the national average) in 2020. Consumers in Idaho saw the largest annual increase, at 8.3%, and the smallest growth was 0.4% in Illinois.\nBorrowers in the District of Columbia had the highest mortgage debt of any state, carrying an average of $437,976—an increase of nearly 4% since 2019. California had the second-highest average, with consumers owing $371,981 in mortgage debt in 2020—over $8,000 or 2.2% more than the previous year. The nation's capital and California were followed by Hawaii, Washington and Colorado as having the highest average mortgage debt.\nSource: Experian data END