The American housing market is coming back, but one issue still keeping it from finding its balance is that younger adults are not buying in the way their parents did.
Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies annual review of the American housing market pointed out some of the issues, including student debt, that is expected to retard the entry of 20- and 30-year olds into home ownership.
•Student loan debt accounted for 63 percent of the growth in total debt in 2013 and for nearly the entire increase in non-housing consumer debt since 2003.
• Student loan balances reported on credit reports increased by $114 billion in 2013 alone.
• Between 2001 and 2010 the share of households aged 25 to 34 with student loan debt rose from 26 percent to 39 percent.
• The share of households aged 25 to 34 with student loan debt totaling more than $50,000 increased from 5 to 15 percent.
• The share of adults in their 20s heading their own households is 2.6 percentage points below the rate 10 years ago, a difference of 1.1 million fewer households.
• In 2013, 20-year olds living at their parents home totaled 15.3 million, as did 3.1 million adults in their 30s.
• The report says millennials are on a lower trajectory of housing independence than earlier generations, and given the current pace of economic growth, it is difficult to predict how quickly these younger adults will finally be able to live on their own.
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