Federal Reserve seeks to provide more data about national trend.

Economists with the New York Federal Reserve are monitoring student loan debt trends as the amount of money people owe for their education continues to grow, according to a recentMoneynews article.

The Fed economists are researching the trends to determine if high student loan debt will damage U.S. growth, in part by limiting sales of houses and cars.

Education debt was more than $1 trillion in the third quarter of 2013, and the amount of loans in delinquency for 90 days or more increased to 11.8 percent, according to article.

Mortgage, credit card and auto debt loan delinquencies have all decreased from their peak levels.

According to the Fed, 43 percent of 25-year-old Americans had student debt in 2012 compared to 25 percent in 2003. The average loan balance increased 91 percent to $20,326 from $10,649.

The Fed is not the only source of data about student loan debt trends, but economists did find there are gaps in how often that information is released and the type that is available.

The Department of Education releases information on federal loans, not private loans, once per year for borrowers who have missed payments for at least 270 consecutive days, according to Moneynews. Its data is released during two- and three-year periods after students graduate or drop out.

Private student loans make up about 15 percent of the market.

“Our job is to really understand what’s happening in the financial system,” said New York Fed President William C. Dudley in the Moneynews article. “People can have trouble with the student-loan debt burden—unable to buy cars, unable to buy homes—and so it can really delay the cycle,” he said.