Just read this article in my local paper.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/jun/13/student-loans-home-ownership/
I think its sad that many of the students feel that they are worse off for having attended college with more debt than before attending.
I dont have enough information about the students surveyed. I bet a lot of those saying that student loans are holding them back, have new/used car loans, latest cell phones, with an expensive bill, etc. I think if you send extra money, 20k in student loan debt is manageable.
That article is full of strange and arbitrary data. Of course having one debt will delay you taking on another debt. One of the studies quoted involved students from for-profit schools (which is a completely different nightmare in itself, and arguably not indicative of the average debted student). And the whole article is framed around the expert input of someone from the NAR, so of course it has a “you’re sad if you cant buy a house” slant.
A lot of people in my generation don’t want to own homes. I am 25. I was a junior/senior in high school when the housing market crashed. Those memories are burned into our brains and owning a home just doesn’t seem worth it to a lot of us- especially since we know we’ll likely have to move around several times for jobs.
With that said, I do own a house. I had to prove to my mortgage company that my loans were in deferral for another 5+ years (grad school) and I had to buy it before I married my partner because his loans are in repayment so they’d count against us and we likely wouldn’t qualify for the mortgage.