For those of us who aren't watching the sharemarket religiously or flipping through capital city median house prices on a daily basis, it might be easy to assume that the economy is bubbling away quite nicely. However, new analysis suggests Australians are quietly preparing for the worst.

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The study by finder.com.au compares APRA data of owner-occupied home loans versus deposits from households, and at first glance the numbers seem fairly inconspicuous. Over the past 13 years of available data, both the number of these home loans funded by banks and the number of household bank deposits – including transaction and savings accounts – has been steadily moving up and to the right.

Consumers are preparing for a downturn in the economy.

Households have borrowed from banks a record high $828 billion for owner-occupied home loans, and $732 billion in deposits is also the highest level we've ever seen.