Could Student Loan Debt Be Hindering the Housing Recovery?

Housing is not going to recover like the pundits would have you believe.  For a partial summary of the evidence, listen the Bloomberg radio podcast on housing linked below.

Harvard's Glaeser Discusses National Housing Trends (Audio)

Aug 28, 2012

Edward Glaeser, professor of economics at Harvard University and a Bloomberg View columnist, says that national trends in housing continue to be a relatively poor guide to local markets. Glaeser speaks with Bloomberg's Carol Massar and Michael McKee on "Bloomberg On the Economy."

Then look at this chart.

Any chance that all the recent grads with minimum wage jobs or no jobs are going to pay back their massive student loan debts and buy a home with 20% down.  Don't even get me started on the scandal that is FICO credit scoring.  Anyone impacted by the crisis of 2008 knows it will be another 3-4 years before they can buy a house ASSUMING they have a solid well paying job and good credit.

This chart was taken from Zerohedge.com, an absolute source of truth for the financially saavy, or those that want to be, like me.