Student loan debt pushes down home prices

A new report suggests that the growing crisis in student loan debt is having a detrimental effect on the number of potential homebuyers and by extension home prices.

More than 40 percent of 25-year-olds owe student loans, with an average balance of $25,000, CNBC reported. About 17 percent are delinquent, which makes it difficult to qualify and acquire other forms of credit and loans. Such high debt loads rob the housing market of a large portion of first-time homebuyers.