Savings & Retirement

Student-Loan Burdens Upend the American Homeownership Dream

  • Higher earners with large debts are less likely to buy a home
  • Jain study shows borrowers in Asian, Black areas are hit hard

   

Photographer: Laura Buckman/Bloomberg
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A central part of the “American Dream” is to buy a house, pay it off over time and retire with hundreds of thousands of dollars of equity in the home.

Student-loan burdens are upending this scenario, according to a study from the Jain Family Institute that found the rise in student debt has become a major obstacle to purchasing a home -- especially among relatively high-income young borrowers.