Click here to read full article 

Peo­ple count mon­ey at Macy’s Her­ald Square store in New York.Andrew Kel­ly | Reuter­sTo­tal con­sumer debt rose to near­ly $14.6 tril­lion as 2020 came to a close, pushed by a record-break­ing rise for mort­gages in the red-hot hous­ing mar­ket, accord­ing to a Fed­er­al Reserve report Wednesday.Debt increased 1.4% for the final three months, rep­re­sent­ing anoth­er $206 bil­lion as house­holds took advan­tage of low inter­est rates and con­tin­ued fis­cal and mon­e­tary stimulus.Mortgage debt passed $10 tril­lion for the first time and rose at the fastest pace in the fourth quar­ter since 2006. The quar­ter­ly increase of $182 bil­lion cul­mi­nat­ed a year in which home­own­ers took advantage …