Central New York city named one of the worst for student debt

Central New York is home to one of the worst cities in the U.S. for student debt, according to a new study.

An analysis by WalletHub named Ithaca, N.Y., as one of the top 10 cities with the most student debt. Ithaca, home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, has a median student debt of $25,041 and a 78.02% ratio of student loan debt to median job earnings of college graduates; the median earnings for bachelor’s degree holders age 25 and older in Ithaca is $32,097.

Only nine other cities nationwide had a higher ratio of student debt to median earnings: Selma, Alabama; Ypsilanti, Michigan; Avon Park, Florida; Cordele, Georgia; Ridgeland, Mississippi; McComb, Mississippi; Orangeburg, South Carolina; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and Ashland, Kentucky. Including Ithaca, 37 U.S. cities are in the first percentile rank for most overleveraged cities.

Williamsville, N.Y., had the highest median student debt in Upstate New York at $26,972, but bachelor’s degree holders earn $48,788 on average — a 55% ratio of debt to earnings. In other words, residents in the Buffalo suburb are likely to pay off school loans more quickly than their counterparts in Ithaca.

Syracuse has a median student debt of $20,872, but average income for bachelor’s graduates is $43,443 — a 48% ratio of debt to earnings. That puts the city that’s home to Syracuse University in the 17th percentile rank for most overleveraged cities.

Only 28 out of 2,510 U.S. cities in the study had an average student debt of $30,000 or higher. Southlake, Texas had the highest median student debt with $41,094, but graduates have a median earnings of $112,374 for a 36% ratio of debt to earnings.

Of the least overleveraged cities, seven of the top 10 were located in California. Bronxville was the only location in New York state among the 10 cities with the least student debt as a ratio to earnings.

Median student-loan balances are based on TransUnion data from September 2021, compared with median earnings of adults ages 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree in each city. The methodology’s sample considers only the city proper in each case and excludes cities in the surrounding metro area. Rankings were then established by assigning 100 points to the city with the highest ratio of student debt to earnings and 0 to the city with the lowest, and linearly extrapolating the data between the two extremes for the cities in between.

According to WalletHub, student loans make up the second highest form of household debt after mortgages, totaling a record $1.61 trillion, or an average of $37,000 per borrower. Payments on federal student loans have been suspended through May 1 due to the continued strain of the Covid-19 pandemic, and some have been forgiven, but the financial crisis still looms large for millions of Americans.

10 Most Overleveraged Cities

Selma, Alabama

Ypsilanti, Michigan

Avon Park, Florida

Cordele, Georgia

Ridgeland, Mississippi

McComb, Mississippi

Orangeburg, South Carolina

Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Ashland, Kentucky

Ithaca, New York

10 Least Overleveraged Cities

Vienna, Virginia

Fremont, California

Menlo Park, California

Sammamish, Washington

Milpitas, California

Gilroy, California

Delano, California

Bronxville, New York

Sunnyvale, California

Coachella, California

Biden considering broader student loan debt forgiveness

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