Buying a house changes a household’s balance sheet by simultaneously reducing liquidity and introducing mortgage payments, which may leave the household more exposed to other shocks. We examine how this change impacts consumer credit beyond the mortgage. Using a large panel, we show that on acquiring a mortgage, credit card debt increases by about $1500 in the short term, severe delinquencies increase by 2.2 percentage points, and credit card utilization—the fraction of a consumer’s credit card limit that is used—increases by 11 percentage points. In the long term, credit card balances increase by $3900 and delinquencies by 9.1 percentage points. In our sample period before the 2008 financial crisis, credit limits increased faster than debt in the long run, pushing down long-term utilization. After the financial crisis, debt increased faster than credit limits in the long run, and credit card utilization rates rose upon the acquisition of a new mortgage, consistent with larger down payments leaving households more constrained.

购买房屋会同时减少流动性和引入抵押贷款付款，从而改变了家庭的资产负债表，这可能会使家庭更容易遭受其他冲击。我们研究了这一变化如何影响抵押贷款以外的消费者信贷。使用一个大面板，我们显示，在获得抵押贷款后，信用卡债务在短期内增加了大约1500美元，严重的违约行为增加了2.2个百分点，并且信用卡利用率（所使用的消费者信用卡限额的一部分）增加11个百分点。从长远来看，信用卡余额增加了3900美元，拖欠率增加了9.1个百分点。在我们2008年金融危机之前的样本期内，长期而言，信贷限额的增长速度快于债务的增长速度，从而降低了长期利用率。金融危机之后，