The start of a credit crunch? Record percentage of U.S. households finding it harder to access credit

Has the credit crunch begun?

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s (FRBNY) Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE), the share of households reporting difficulty accessing credit surged to an all-time high.

The outlook for credit access, with 58 percent of households anticipating it to be much or somewhat harder to obtain credit than a year ago, up from 55.7 percent in February.

SCE data also show that 53 percent of households expect it will be harder to receive credit a year from now, up from 48.8 percent in February.

The same survey also found that one-year-ahead inflation expectations rose 0.5 percent to 4.7 percent. This was the first monthly increase since October 2022.