College Costs and the Housing Market

Written By:
Ingo Winzer, President

Local Market Monitor
 

If you just took out a home equity loan to fund your daughter's college education, would you be in the housing market anytime soon, either buying or selling?

 

If you just graduated from college with $30,000 of debt, would you be saving up to buy a home anytime soon? How about if you graduated from law school but now owed $100,000?

 

College costs and the government loan programs that have aided and abetted what amounts to an extortion racket will dampen the housing market for a generation. To get a good job you need a degree, so colleges have raised prices with impunity. Can't afford it, kid? Go borrow from your Uncle Sam. No wonder college expenses have soared far above what's needed to provide a decent education.

 

Unlike the health care system, where payers like insurance companies and Medicare act as a brake on costs, the college education system has no brakes at all. $100 billion is added every year to an outstanding student debt level of $1 trillion. If nothing is done, this monster will wreck the housing industry.