Chicago and Houston rank as the cities with the most people in financial distress, according to a new report from the personal finance site WalletHub.
The analysis ranked 100 large cities on several metrics of financial duress, including bankruptcy filings, credit scores and accounts in forbearance over money troubles.
Researchers also tabulated how often people in each city searched the internet for “debt” or “loans,” a measure of financial concern.
“The search index is a good indicator of people who are struggling but maybe haven’t taken action to try to get out of debt just yet,” said Cassandra Happe, a WalletHub analyst.
Chicago, Houston, New York and Los Angeles rank highest for citizens in financial duress
New York and Los Angeles ranked third and fourth on the financial distress list. Boise, Idaho, ranked last − which means that city has the fewest citizens in financial peril.
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To control for each city’s size, the ranking emphasized rates of distress over raw numbers.
The report comes at a moment when Americans are spending more, borrowing more and saving less.
Credit card debt, an increasingly perilous form of borrowing, reached a record $1.13 trillion at the end of last year.
The personal savings rate, the share of income that savers sock away, was 3.8% in January, down from about 7% before the COVID-19 pandemic.
People are falling behind in their finances amid a surge in interest rates and consumer prices.
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