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Saving for a down payment, student loan debt, stagnant wage growth, and a lack of affordable homes on the market are several factors making homebuying all too difficult for Millennials.
For many Millennials, student loan debt can seem overwhelming, and an impossible hurdle to overcome when hoping to buy a home. Yet, Zillow's research advises that student loan debt, "while burdensome, doesn’t have much of an impact on whether or not the debt holder will eventually own a home. Lots of debt may delay homeownership, but it’s unlikely to de-rail it completely," adding that Millennials who stayed in school and graduated into a very tough job market during the Great Recession have already jumped the hurdle, and those that graduated "during the teeth" of the recession, 2008 through 2010, are "likely at or close to being in position to buy a home by now if they so choose."
At the same time, young, college-educated Americans are struggling with stagnant (at best) wage growth: Nationally, after adjusting for inflation, the typical employed adult made 1.2 percent less in 2016 than they did in 2005. But recent college grads fared even worse, making 2.4 percent less. So it’s no wonder that many millennials are choosing to live with mom in order to save, at least in part, on pricey housing costs ... And perhaps unsurprisingly, more young adults live at home in areas where typical housing costs – particularly rents – are generally more unaffordable and consume a larger share of income.
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