Student loan payments have been paused since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and according to Realtor.com, that break from monthly repayments allowed Americans between 18 and 35 years of age to participate in the recent homebuying boom. While the share of homeowners aged 18 to 35 averaged 17.8% in 2020, homeownership among young Americans rose to 18.5% in 2021 at the start of the loan payment pause. In 2022, that share rose even higher, ending the year at 18.9%.
Between 2020 and 2022, homeownership rates of young borrowers rose in 49 states and in D.C., surging the highest in Iowa, where 31% of young adults were homeowners in 2022.
“Effective policy responses can lessen the negative impacts of the student-debt crisis,” Eddie Nilaj, co-author of the report, told MarketWatch, “not just in relieving debt, but enabling home ownership and economic mobility, for example.”
Homeownership rates were the highest in more affordable markets.
This includes Iowa, where nearly 31% of young student debtors owned a home, followed by South Dakota and North Dakota, both at roughly 29%.
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