Higher rental costs and student loan debt continue to prevent many Americans from purchasing a home, according to the results of a survey from NeighborWorks America.
NeighborWorks reported Wednesday that 56% of survey respondents said that rents are too high where they live for them to be able to save enough to buy a home. Similarly, 53% of potential homebuyers with student loan debt said that their debt was either somewhat or very much an obstacle to that purchase.
Another 30% of respondents said they knew someone who delayed a home purchase because of their student loan debt.
And the two issues are interrelated: 29% of people with student loan debt said they expect to rent again when they make their next housing choice, as compared with just 17% of those who have no student loan debt.
"With the homeownership rate at the lowest point in decades, and minority homeownership plunging even further, these data signal a weak home-buying market going forward, despite near-record-low mortgage rates and broad-based national income growth," Paul Weech, president and CEO of NeighborWorks, said in a news release.
The survey also found that there is a nearly even split in terms regarding affordability: 50% of respondents said homes in their market were affordable to first-time buyers, while 45% said they were not.
One area where survey-takers did agree was regarding of down payment assistance programs and student loan debt counseling. NeighborWorks reported that 71% of respondents were not aware or unsure of down payment assistance programs available to middle-class homebuyers. And 77% of people with student loan debt had not heard of or were unfamiliar with loan counseling programs.
The survey, which was conducted by Widmeyer Communications, polled 1,000 adults.
