tax reform legislation<\/a> enters the House and the economy continues to slowly bounce back from the Great Recession. <\/p>\nPost-recession debt burdens aren\u2019t helping the nation\u2019s homeownership rate, either. Student loan debt is suppressing young adult homeownership in particular. <\/p>\n
\u201cEventually, time will start to soften the impact of those high student loans,\u201d Beth Ann Bovino, chief U.S. economist at S&P Global Ratings, explained during a panel. \u201cJobs are coming around, wages are picking up.\u201d But this is not to say the issue isn\u2019t having real ramifications right now.<\/p>\n
For those struggling to repay student loan debt, homeownership is simply not an option right now, according to Jessica Lautz, managing director of survey research and communication at NAR. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, many who are managing their student loan debt well aren\u2019t in position to buy a home, either, a trend also identified by the National Association of Realtors 2017 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. <\/p>\n
Another panel comprised of Dr. Lawrence Yun of NAR, Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute, and Boyd Campbell of Century 21 discussed affordability concerns involving the supply and demand issues facing the housing market today. <\/p>\n
Debt burdens aside, homeownership is just becoming too expensive for many Americans. \u201cPrices have risen roughly 40 percent in the past five years, while people\u2019s income has risen at a much slower rate,\u201d Yun said. \u201cThis rise in prices forces an affordability concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
This particular issue isn\u2019t just a real estate matter. The labor market plays a role as college-educated workers are priced out of areas where the job market is strong but housing prices are high. <\/p>\n
As the number of families buying their first single-family homes remains well below the 50-year average, conversations about the range of issues impacting the housing market must continue. <\/p>\n
\u201cProspective homebuyers face headwinds from the market, in the halls of Congress and in their own family\u2019s budgets,\u201d said NAR President Elizabeth Mendenhall, a sixth-generation Realtor and CEO of RE\/MAX Boone Realty. \u201cWe can\u2019t solve them all, but we know more can be done to smooth the way for creditworthy borrowers who want to own a home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(REAL ESTATE) As tax reform remains hotly debated, experts and politicians discuss the way forward to protect homeownership, and thus the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337700,"featured_media":12674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[602],"tags":[323,1234],"class_list":["post-12672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homeownership","tag-homeownership","tag-real-estate-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/12\/jeb-hensarling.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337700"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12672"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12679,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12672\/revisions\/12679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}