Add this obstacle to the list of challenges for first time homebuyers in Texas
As if the housing market wasn’t difficult enough for first-time homebuyers, experts have pinpointed another obstacle: student loans.
Student loan debt can eat up 3.3% to 10.9% of the average Texas college graduate’s income, according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center. That makes it harder to qualify for a mortgage or save for a down payment.
More than half of Texas college grads in 2020 finished school with student loans, to the tune of an average balance of $26,273.
Add that to additional obstacles of the housing market, like increased sales prices, increasing mortgage rates and low inventory of homes, especially in Fort Worth, where inventory hovers at about one month. The Texas Real Estate Research Center estimates six months of inventory is a balanced market.
“On average, a household earning $50,000 may need just over two years to save the down payment on a $217,000 home. However that increases to six years if the household carries the average student loan payment,” says Clare Losey, a housing affordability expert at the Texas Real Estate Research Center.
But, in Fort Worth, where the median home price reached $367,000 in May, it would take even longer.
This story was originally published July 13, 2022 at 2:56 PM.
