San Jose, California, which ranks among the top 10 largest cities in the U.S., is home to more than 980,000 people as of July 2021, according to 2020–2021 U.S. census estimates. This is notably less than the 1 million people reported in April 2020. According to Credit Karma data from Aug. 17, 2022, the average overall debt of the 205,353 Credit Karma members who live in San Jose is $103,038. In this case, overall debt is made up of auto loans, auto leases, student loans, mortgages, credit card balances and medical debt. (Click here for the full methodology.)
Read on to see a snapshot of debt in San Jose.
Overall debt in San Jose
The 205,353 Credit Karma members living in San Jose held a combined total debt of about $35.4 billion. The average overall debt for individuals was $103,038. The median overall debt was only $9,424, which makes this one of the largest gaps between average and median total debt of Credit Karma members in the 100 largest U.S. cities. The average next payment on that debt is $722.
In contrast, the national average debt for Credit Karma members is $49,454, and the median is $11,223.
San Jose’s debt dial
Image: An orange heat dial labeled with low debt on the left side and high debt on the right. The hand of the dial leans far to the right, illustrating that credit karma members in San Jose have the second highest average overall debt compared to the other top 100 U.S. cities by population.Auto loans, student loans, mortgage and credit card debt in San Jose
The table that follows contains averages and medians for different types of debt among Credit Karma members in San Jose.
| Debt type | Number of Credit Karma members with debt type | Average debt | Median debt | Average next payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto loan | 130,669 | $24,187 | $18,991 | $603 |
| Student loan | 52,353 | $30,337 | $13,686 | $51 |
| Mortgage | 61,856 | $620,008 | $508,733 | $3,352 |
| Credit card | 201,633 | $7,106 | $3,326 | $194 |
So how do residents of San Jose compare to the national member averages? The table that follows compares the national average against the averages in San Jose among Credit Karma members.
| Debt type | National average debt of Credit Karma members | San Jose member average debt |
|---|---|---|
| Auto loan | $24,042 | $24,187 |
| Student loan | $32,004 | $30,337 |
| Mortgage | $235,194 | $620,008 |
| Credit card | $6,469 | $7,106 |
Overall, Credit Karma members in San Jose had more debt than the national average across all categories, except for student loan debt. The average mortgage debt in San Jose is around $385,000 more than the national average.
How does San Jose rank against other cities?
We compared averages for Credit Karma members living in the top 100 cities by population according to 2021 U.S. census population estimates.
Out of the top 100 cities, San Jose has the second-highest overall average debt among Credit Karma members. San Jose is one of three cities where the average overall debt is greater than $100,000.
Here’s how San Jose members ranked against the other top 100 cities in America.
- Auto loan debt: 38th highest
- Credit card debt: 17th highest
- Student loan debt: 69th highest
- Mortgage debt: 2nd highest
Credit, inquiries and past-due accounts in San Jose
Among Credit Karma members in San Jose, the average VantageScore 3.0 credit score was 707 and the median was 733, both of which are considered good. The national average VantageScore 3.0 for Credit Karma members was 673, while the median was 682.
San Jose members had an average of 3.5 inquiries on their credit reports, while the national average was 4.2.
Residents of San Jose average 0.52 accounts that were 30 days past due. The national average is 0.74 accounts.
Methodology
To determine averages across categories of debt — including auto lease, auto loan, credit card, mortgage, student loan, medical and total debt — we analyzed the accounts of about 205,000 Credit Karma members living in San Jose who had been active on the site within the last 36 months. Averages were based on information from members’ TransUnion credit reports from the 90 days previous to the data pull, which was on Aug. 17, 2022. For the purposes of this analysis, auto lease, auto loan, credit card, mortgage, medical and student loan debt is defined as any unpaid balances existing on members’ open accounts in aggregate at the time the data was pulled. All numbers in this report were rounded to the nearest whole.
Note that all data for this article were pulled on Aug. 17, 2022.