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Household debt in the United States is reaching levels close to the all-time peak that came during the 2008 financial crisis, according to a survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Buoyed by more easily available credit, total debt in the fourth quarter was at $12.58 trillion, just 0.8 percent below the $12.68 trillion of the third quarter of 2008. The makeup of that debt by type, however, was different: Mortgages accounted for a smaller share of household debt at the end of 2016 than at the verge of the housing-market-triggered crisis of 2008. 

"Since reaching a trough in mid-2013, the rebound in household debt has been led by student debt and auto debt, with only sluggish growth in mortgage debt," said New York Fed senior vice president Wilbert van der Klaauw in the report. 

The new study returns the spotlight onto the first two types of debt – student loans, whose debt load swelled to $1.31 trillion, and loans for autos, which reached $1.16 trillion – at a time when both have drawn scrutiny by regulators and politicians.  

Because the New York Fed doesn’t adjust its figures for inflation, the report actually shows signs that American households are finally beginning to move past the long-lasting effects of the financial crisis. "When measured against the broader economy, total household borrowing today is 67% of nominal gross domestic product, compared with about 85% in 2008," reports The Wall Street Journal.

But even though Americans are getting smarter about buying homes, consumers are still vulnerable to questionable practices in the student loan and auto loan industries.

Last month, the nation’s biggest student-loan provider, Navient, was sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for a raft of alleged deceptive practices that included misinforming borrowers and neglecting to act on complaints. And in a corner of the loan industry that involves about 7 in 10 incoming college freshmen, many people aren’t particularly well-informed about the decision they’re making, as º£½Ç´óÉñ reported in October:

Auto loans have come under scrutiny, too.

As the Monitor reported last May, a CFPB report from that month found that for many car buyers, auto title loans designed to offer short-term access to cash often ended up snowballing into long-term debt:

Overall, however, while student loans and subprime loans continue to raise concerns, "delinquency rates have continued to decline," reports the Journal. 

This report contains material from Reuters.