The MReport Webcast: Thursday 10/1/2015

While student loan debt does play a role in the low homeownership rates among millennials, it does not fully explain why this generation is slow to purchase a home, according to Freddie Mac's monthly Insight & Outlook for September released Wednesday.

Some housing experts expected the homeownership rate, which has been decreasing since 2004 to get a much-needed boost as millennials entered the housing market. However, there have been no results on this end and the homeownership rate has continued to fall. Freddie Mac's data showed student debt tripled over the past 10 years, reaching 1 point 2 trillion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2014. Pre-crisis homeownership rates of 27-to-30-year-olds with student loans, with at least some college education, were 2 to 3 percent higher than homeownership rates of those with no student loans.

Credit unions are in a better position to assist underserved consumers, but a lending cap imposed on credit unions by the U.S. Treasury is keeping these institutions from better serving consumers. In a recent letter, the Credit Union National Association told the Treasury that they have the ability to provide capital for underserved consumers better than online marketplace lenders. However, credit unions are limited and burdened by the 12 point 25 percent cap on lending by the Treasury.