The media has highlighted repeatedly the universal struggle of former students to repay their loans after college. The debts are so demanding that nonrepayment rates are above 50 percent for over 700 schools. Millennials (also known as “Generation Y”) that see such statistics might believe that the world is set against them even before they really get their foot in the door—it’s likely though they’d have difficulty even acquiring a home to set foot in.
The economic circumstances of a whole generation have dictated whether or not a Millennial lives as a renter or as a homeowner. A combination of high unemployment, a tight credit market, and the aforementioned student debts hamper Millennials who are searching for a house to buy. Against these odds, it’s little wonder why the homeownership rate among Americans under 35-years-old is only about 35 percent. Even though renting still allows a Millennial to live independently, as many as 79 percent of 30,000 surveyed by apartmentlist.com desire to purchase a home. The main obstacle they named is affordability.
According to a multistate research project in the “Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal,” a Millennial will have to “overcome the credit constraint to obtain a mortgage, the wealth constraint to accumulate savings for a down payment and other upfront costs, and the income constraint to meet the debt-to-income ratio limit” in the process of buying a house. Once added up, the total cost for a median-priced house can require a salary from $29,480.96 in Pittsburgh to $144,196.08 in San Francisco. The goalpost of homeownership appears more and more distant with the knowledge that a former student earns on average $22,400 annually 10 years after leaving college.
In effect, the difficulty of buying a house has led Millennials to enter the housing market at lower rates and stay longer within the homes of their parents. And while they continue to put off the purchase of a house, the housing market continues to fortify itself against new homeowners. Mortgage default rates, foreclosure rates, and down payment costs continue to rise. Those who are already struggling with student loan debts will be discouraged from homeownership due to the prospect of shouldering another debt. Unless trends change or fortune falls upon the Millenials, they will likely still be waiting to buy a home a decade out of school.
The “Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal” has linked family and housing decisions in their study. Understandably so. Family formation and homeownership are both considered important transitions in the American “life cycle.” With the high costs of owning a household, Millennials have statistically deferred marriage and parenthood. Likewise, the lower rates of marriage and parenthood have accounted for half of the decrease in the homeownership rate among young people. The fact that family formation has been delayed for a large portion of Millennials will play an important part in the shaping of this generation’s group dynamics.
The prototypical image of the American Dream—a family raised and a house bought with a white-picket fence out front—appears not to be the norm anymore. Millennials must accept that the dream will have to be put off until their financial situations can handle the costs of housing. Building up the foundation for homeownership will take years, but that’s the reality we have come to inhabit. In time, the dream may fade out and be replaced with an image set by our generation—a late family, a rented house, and an unconquered mountain of debts.
