I also agree that is should be figured in % of annual income. When we were in the Army and racked up 10,000 in debt really quickly years ago, that freaked me out b/c my dh didn't make much more than that in Army pay. However now with his pay that would not bother me. But I did learn my lesson back then so I hate cc's now!
I think anything more than a couple thousand is just too much debt, it means you are obviously living above your means and you need to read Dave Ramsey.

As for mortgages, lol, I wish we could get a home for only $2000 a month! That depends on where you live totally! When we first moved here we rented an apt for 1700 a month. We did not move here in time to beat the huge rise in prices, so our Townhouse costs us $3000 a month (everything, HOA/Taxes/Insur,etc). I wish we could keep the % down to below 20% total but with housing prices here we can't. It is around 35% though so it is managable, but the more that goes to housing the less goes to savings! In the future when we move back to TX, the housing is so much cheaper there so we will be able to stay at 20% easily.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

This is how I feel too. If there's more on the CC than in the checkbook - it's too much debt. We do have an emergency fund but I don't want to use it to pay off CC. We are almost debt free (just have the truck pmt ) so I am aiming for it and hoping to stay that way for a looooong time.

Minimal debt to me: about $500 dollars.

We only acquire debt for specific purposes: we use a credit card for online shopping, large purchases, or vacation planning. For example, we just bought concert tickets for September and booked our saty in Toronto for that week. More than $500, but I've already paid off the purchase amount, so the vacation will be paid for before we ever leave home! We'll only pay for food and souvenirs!

Too much debt: Any!

Reasonable mortgage: about $1200, including property taxes and homeowners insurance all together.

I have to say it really depends on your ability to pay it off. Now. I have quite a lot of debt but I also have enough equity that if I barrowed from my home or 401K I could pay off my consumer debt. So its reasonable but I still will fill strapped until its gone. My morgage is 37% (yikes) of our income. Now 37% of 40K is a lot for us I can see 37% of 100K being more reasonable because it still gives you more to live off. I live in a higher COL area the average home price is 400k our home cost 135K at the bottom of the market while I feel it is higher then we wanted to go we would be able to now sell at 185K so its worth things being tight.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

Our mortgage is ~30% of what DH brings home. Like, after retirement, health insurance, taxes, etc. are taken out. BUT, he has a pension plan, puts $ into retirement, has amazing health insurance/dental, etc. We have no CC debt, car payments, or anything else but some student loans. So, we're doing ok. We live frugally and keep a tight budget, but we are also able to save some each month. We drive tiny cars (Hondas) that are fuel-efficient and durable (that'll change once we have more than 2 kids, though). We live in town, so we don't drive far to get to work or to any stores. So, I think it's pretty relative. I wish we had a smaller mortgage payment, but we also don't plan to move anytime soon, so we'll be able to build equity. DH's salary will also continue to increase, God-willing.

I believe you should use %s and income stability when trying to determine if your debt load is high. For us, the $2000 mortgage payment would wipe us out as it would be well over half of DH's gross pay.