Student Loan Survey Reveals That If Debt Was Forgiven, Millennials Would Buy Homes

Buying a home is becoming increasingly difficult due to a slew of factors, including soaring inflation, higher mortgage rates and a limited housing inventory. But there are additional challenges for certain would-be homebuyers, including paying off student loans, which is making many millennial Americans delay or reconsider homeownership. In fact, a new survey found that 69.9% of millennial borrowers polled who intended to buy their first home in the next four to nine years said they believe they could shorten that timeline with student loan forgiveness (to one to three years).
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A new Rocket Mortgage survey of millennials detailed that 64.3% of borrowers belonging to that generation said they still owe money on their student loans. Respondents had borrowed a median amount of $40,000 to $60,000 in student loans, according to the survey.
At the same time, 83.11% of millennial borrowers said they believe there should be some type of student loan forgiveness, suggesting a median forgiveness of 50% of all student loans. In turn, if student loan forgiveness were put into effect, a whopping 79.6% of millennials polled said they would anticipate buying a house in the near future.
According to the latest data from the U.S Census Bureau, 48.6% of all millennials own a home, Rocket Mortgage notes. The rate of homeownership is greater among millennial student loan borrowers, however, compared to non-student loan borrowers, with 56.8% of millennial borrowers currently owning a home and 55.9% in that group saying they are still making payments on student loans.
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Breaking down the data further by age group, the survey showed that 43.9% of millennials aged 26-30 currently own a home, 59.2% ages 31-35 own a home, and 63.1% of millennials ages 36-41 own a home.
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