The home ownership rate of people under 35 is at an all time low. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Number of the day: 27%

That’s the portion of U.S. home buyers last year who were 25 to 34 years old, the lowest level in a decade, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Wonder why that happening?

Well, that’s because two-thirds of all college graduates have student loan debt. So they can’t buy houses.

As the article explains “they’re on the hook for big student loans and can’t qualify for a mortgage. Banks have instituted tighter mortgage lending standards in the wake of the financial crisis.”

As recently as 2009, 34 percent of all housing buyers were in that age group.

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Daniel Luzer is the news editor at Governing Magazine and former web editor of the Washington Monthly. Find him on Twitter: @Daniel_Luzer