The weight of student loans is getting heavy, and young people carrying that weight are less likely to take on other loans, according to a recent study out of the New York Fed.
The study showed that 43% of 25-year-olds have student loan debt – up from 25% back in 2003. And for the first time in a decade, 30-year-olds who have student loans are less likely to buy a house or a car.
With the increased cost of education, total student loan balances have tripled over the past eight years (the only form of consumer debt that has continued to grow since the peak in 2008). There has been a 70% increase in the number of borrowers….and a 70% increase in the average loan amount. Americans now owe something to the tune of $1 trillion in student loans. That burden is shared by around 37 million borrowers. And the really troubling number: about 6.7 million of them are delinquent.