Household debt fell at a 0.4 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2012 and household wealth increased by $2.8 trillion, the Federal Reserve said on Thursday.
The central bank originally had reported that consumer debt rose in the fourth quarter for the first time since the end of the last recession.
A 3 percent decrease in mortgage debt more than offset a 5.8 percent rise in consumer credit. The drop in household debt was the 15th straight decline.
It was the sixteenth straight quarter of declining household debt, suggesting the country's deleveraging process continues.
The Fed also slashed the amount of cash companies have on hand after revising several years of data based on updated information from the IRS.
Household net worth rose 4.7 percent to $62.9 trillion last quarter, according to a Federal Reserve report released Thursday. The main reason was a 12 percent jump in the Standard & Poor's 500 index, which padded the wealth of Americans who own stocks.
Home values increased 2.3 percent.
Household wealth, or net worth, is the value of assets like homes, bank accounts and stocks, minus debts like mortgages and credit cards. It bottomed during the Great Recession at roughly $49 trillion in the first quarter of 2009.
Americans have been gradually recovering the wealth they lost to the recession. But it remains about 5 percent below its pre-recession peak of $66 trillion.
