Dive Brief:

• A college degree can boost a graduate’s earning potential, but heavy student debt erases any advantage an education might give someone when it comes to buying a house.

• A report by Goldman Sachs Group obtained by conservative news portal Newsmax revealed that 23- to 34-year-olds who owe $25,000 to $50,000 on their student loans are 12% less apt to buy homes than those without that burden.

• In fact, the report said, for some, the lack of a college degree—and the absence of student debt—makes them more likely to become homeowners.

Dive Insight:

Student debt and expensive rents are widely blamed for the inability of so many young adults to save for down payments and purchase their first homes.

And the number of millennials with outsized student debt is “rising fast,” Goldman Chief Economist Jan Hatzius said in the report. In fact, the amount of school loans is growing even among former students who never graduated from college.