Rising car costs take toll on Colorado families

By Heather Willard | Fox 31

DENVER (KDVR) — For many, the monthly car bill is a fact of life, but for one Denver metro city, it’s a bit more of a financial weight than it is in most.

Wallethub took a look at the median auto-loan balance of over 2,500 U.S. cities, noting that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest report on household indebtedness showed auto-loan balances increased by $13 billion in the second quarter of 2025.

The organization used TransUnion data as of March 2025 to divide the median car-loan debt by residents’ income in each of the cities. The median income in each city was based on 2023 earnings of individuals over 15 years old who worked full-time, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

The top cities where residents overspend the most on cars were crowned by Rio Grande, Texas, because the median auto loan debt is $32,173, while the median income is about $33,782. That means the ratio of residents’ auto loan debt to income is about 95%, which is the highest in the country, according to Wallethub’s analysis. The analysis ranked the highest car loan debt-to-income ratio as 1, and lower percentiles count up from there.

Here’s where the top 15 cities for overspending on car loans were located, and where Colorado’s cities landed on the ranking.

Percentile Rank	City	Median Auto-Loan Debt	Income	Debt-to-Income Ratio
1	Rio Grande City, TX	$32,173	$33,782	95%
1	Northglenn, CO	$50,124	$55,715	90%
1	Donna, TX	$27,828	$31,203	89%
1	Mercedes, TX	$27,351	$32,248	85%
1	Jackson, GA	$23,009	$27,365	84%
1	Bastrop, LA	$23,515	$29,750	79%
1	San Juan, TX	$29,419	$38,841	76%
1	San Benito, TX	$25,068	$35,269	71%
1	Deming, NM	$26,625	$37,987	70%
1	Uvalde, TX	$26,896	$39,075	69%
1	Eagle Pass, TX	$27,902	$40,768	68%
1	Pharr, TX	$27,269	$40,566	67%
1	Tolleson, AZ	$23,143	$34,597	67%
1	Alice, TX	$28,619	$42,868	67%
29	Pueblo, CO	$19,588	$50,987	38%
33	Greeley, CO	$19,339	$51,581	37%
40	Fountain, CO	$20,677	$58,669	35%
42	Montrose, CO	$18,993	$54,677	35%
45	Commerce City, CO	$22,059	$65,130	34%
45	Brighton, CO	$21,916	$64,762	34%
47	Grand Junction, CO	$19,134	$57,143	33%
49	Aurora, CO	$18,998	$58,062	33%
51	Colorado Springs, CO	$19,141	$59,087	32%
53	Thornton, CO	$19,825	$62,149	32%
58	Monument, CO	$24,142	$78,867	31%
63	Loveland, CO	$17,345	$59,623	29%
65	Durango, CO	$16,894	$59,228	29%
73	Windsor, CO	$21,040	$80,605	26%
74	Littleton, CO	$18,415	$71,316	26%
76	Longmont, CO	$16,702	$66,685	25%
76	Parker, CO	$21,045	$84,534	25%
78	Fort Collins, CO	$15,958	$65,822	24%
80	Lakewood, CO	$15,555	$66,037	24%
80	Castle Rock, CO	$21,122	$89,954	23%
82	Englewood, CO	$15,570	$67,201	23%
84	Wheat Ridge, CO	$15,973	$71,270	22%
84	Denver, CO	$16,256	$72,964	22%
86	Arvada, CO	$16,636	$77,521	21%
86	Golden, CO	$17,998	$84,007	21%
88	Centennial, CO	$18,137	$88,291	21%
91	Lafayette, CO	$14,897	$79,199	19%
93	Boulder, CO	$15,082	$85,484	18%
94	Highlands Ranch, CO	$17,346	$101,884	17%

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