{"id":32904,"date":"2025-02-27T04:07:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T12:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/?p=32904"},"modified":"2025-02-28T15:30:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T23:30:20","slug":"buyer-buying-a-home-with-student-loans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-buying-a-home-with-student-loans\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Still Buy a Home If You Have Student Loan Debt? Here Is What You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Millennials, or those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nar.realtor\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/2024-home-buyers-and-sellers-generational-trends-04-03-2024.pdf\">born between the years 1980 to 1998<\/a>, have long dominated the consumer market. As such, this generational group should have also taken over the real estate market. But millennials continue to fall short of the classic American dream of being a homebuyer.<\/p>\n<p>Why might that be? Well, hello there, student loan debt.<\/p>\n<p>Owning a home has always been an expensive endeavor, yet coming-of-age homebuyers already face financial burdens from their college days. Millennials have on average <a href=\"https:\/\/educationdata.org\/student-loan-debt-by-age\">$42,637 in student loan debt<\/a> while Gen-Zers have $24,473, as the Education Data Initiative reports in its 2024 study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"geo-cta widget-cta widget-cta--content     widget-cta--dark widget-cta--dark-blue-gradient\">\n    <div class=\"widget-element--content\">\n        <div class=\"widget-element--content-header\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"homelight logo\" class=\"widget-element--logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/ccprototypev5\/images\/logo-small-cta.png\" width=\"106\" height=\"25\" \/>\n        <\/div>\n        \n                <h3 class=\"cta-headline widget--bold\">Discover How Much Home You Can Afford With Our Home Affordability Calculator<\/h3>\n                        <p>Looking to purchase a home in the near future, despite having student loan debt? Yes, it&#8217;s possible! Use our Home Affordability Calculator to get an idea of how much you can afford to spend on your dream home.<\/p>\n        \n                <div class=\"widget-element--buttons\">\n            <a data-type=\"In Content CTA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/how-much-house-can-i-afford\" class=\"cta-click-track widget-element--button\">Get Started <\/a>\n        <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Even in the face of that stat, we have good news to share. Student loan debt doesn\u2019t make it impossible to live out your dream of homeownership; it just makes it a bit more difficult because of its impact on your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-debt-to-income-ratio-for-mortgage\/\">debt-to-income ratio (DTI)<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-minimum-credit-score-to-buy-a-house\/\">credit score<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-how-much-should-you-put-down-on-a-house\/\">down payment savings<\/a>. If you\u2019re considering buying a home with student loan debt, here are the most important things you need to know directly from expert real estate agents and mortgage professionals.<\/p>\n<section class=\"building-block bb-type-default bb-agent-quote bg-none\" id=\"bb-1\"><div class=\"body block\"><div class=\"container-fluid\"><div class=\"block-content\">            <blockquote class=\"post-blockquote\">\n                <q>You build zero equity while you\u2019re renting, and your payments are variable. Owning a home increases your equity and creates financial comfort in the long run.<\/q>\n                            <\/blockquote>\n        <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n<div id=\"section--1\" data-toc-header=\"The possibility of homeownership with student debt\" data-toc-type=\"head\"><\/div>\n<h2>The possibility of homeownership with student debt<\/h2>\n<p>Are you someone who desires to settle down in a home of your own soon? You certainly aren\u2019t alone \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realtor.com\/research\/2025-jan-american-dream-survey\/\">75% of Americans<\/a> see homeownership as a part of the American dream. It\u2019s a dream that pays. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/agents\/edward-kaminsky-ca-00958114\">Edward Kaminsky<\/a>, a real estate agent with over 38 years of experience in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/manhattan-beach-ca\/eastside-manhattan-beach\/top-real-estate-agents\">Manhattan Beach, California<\/a>, shares, \u201cYou build zero equity while you\u2019re renting, and your payments are variable. Owning a home increases your equity and creates financial comfort in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This may seem impossible if you\u2019re one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/educationdata.org\/average-student-loan-debt\">42.8 million borrowers in the U.S.<\/a> with student loans and are worried about how that may impact your ability to buy a home. The short answer is that student loan debt doesn\u2019t disqualify you from this undertaking!<\/p>\n<p>The longer answer is that it could affect your chances of obtaining an affordable mortgage.<\/p>\n<p>You may be ready to go house hunting ASAP, but you must first identify where you stand with your student loans. The best place to start? Take it from Richie Helali, a mortgage specialist from HomeLight, who shares, \u201cMy general recommendation is to talk to a lender first. There\u2019s nothing to be embarrassed about as everyone\u2019s financial scenario is different. The loan officer\u2019s job is to help you solve your unique situation and be in a better position to buy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many potential homebuyers with student loan debt are wondering if homeownership is even possible for them. We\u2019ll show you how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335,"featured_media":55032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192,629,632],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-for-buyers","category-home-financing","category-mortgage-loans"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Yes, You Can Still Buy A Home If You Have Student Loans! Here Is How<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many potential homebuyers are wondering if buying a home with student loans is possible. We\u2019ll show you how.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homelight.com\/blog\/buyer-buying-a-home-with-student-loans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can You Still Buy a Home If You Have Student Loan Debt? Here Is What You Need to Know\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many potential homebuyers are wondering if buying a home with student loans is possible. 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