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Am I considered in debt if I pay a mortgage?
The statistic you cited comes from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances, a survey that they do every three years, most recently in 2013.  This was reported in the September 2014 issue of the Federal Reserve Bulletin.  They list the percentage of Americans with any type of debt as 74.5 in 2013, down slightly from 74.9 in 2010. The Bulletin also has a table with a breakdown of the types of debt that people have, and primary residence mortgages are at the top of the list.  So the answer is yes, the 75% statistic includes Americans with home mortgages.* The bigger question is, are you really "in debt" if you have a home mortgage?  The answer to that is also yes.  When you take out a mortgage, you really do own the house.  You decide who lives there, you decide what changes you are going to make to it, and you are responsible for the upkeep.  But the mortgage debt you have is secured by the house.  This means that if you refuse to pay, the bank is allowed to take possession of the house.  They don't even get the "whole" house, though; they will sell it to recoup their losses, and give you back whatever equity you had in the house after the loan is satisfied. Is it good debt?  Many people think that if you are borrowing money to purchase an appreciating asset, the debt is acceptable.  With this definition, a car loan is bad, credit card debt is very bad, and a home mortgage might be okay.  Even Dave Ramsey, radio host and champion of the debt-free lifestyle, is not opposed to home mortgages.  Home mortgages allow people to purchase a home that they would otherwise be unable to afford. * Interestingly, according to the bulletin appendix, credit card balances were only included as debt for the survey purposes if there was a balance after the most recent bill was paid, not including purchases made after the bill.  So people that do not carry a balance on their credit card were not considered "in debt" in this statistic.