"I think most people, when they hear about households taking on more debt, they think of households taking on debt that is irresponsible: They are buying and using this debt for unnecessary items," explains Dr. Mike Walden, a professor of agricultural and resource economics.

"But if you look at the data for the past 15 years, here's what we see: The percentage of household debt that is going for your home -- that is, to buy a home, a home mortgage -- accounts for about three-quarters of total debt. And in fact it's up from 71 percent of all debt to 79 percent of all debt over that 15 years.

"So we are using more of our debt to buy homes. The amount that we use for credit cards has actually been constant at about 5 percent. The amount for education is up slightly from 3 to 4 percent. The amount for everything else is down," he adds.

"So really the increase in debt that households have taken on over the last 15 years has primarily gone to buy homes and for their education," Walden concludes. "And many economists would say that's actually good."