Here’s Why Millions of Millennials Are Not Homeowners

Laurie Goodman and other researchers at the Urban Institute break down a slew of reasons explaining why young adults are in less of a rush to get their hands on house keys.

Marriage, for example, increases the likelihood of someone becoming a homeowner by 18 percentage points, but Millennials are delaying marriage as well as having children, which increases a person’s change of homeownership by 6 points.

Student debt of course is another factor. The Institute calculated that homeownership declined 15% if a person’s college education debt went from $50,000 to $100,000. Also, Millennials are renting longer, often in pricey locations, which makes saving for a down payment more difficult.

Although Goodman expects the homeownership rate for Millennials to pick up as they get older, the fact that they’re buying homes later than previous generations means, “they’re building wealth much, much more slowly.”

PB Topical Ref