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Recent college graduates who borrow are leaving school with an average of $34,000 in student loans. That's up from $20,000 just 10 years ago, according to a new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
In that report, out this week, the New York Fed took a careful look at the relationship between debt and homeownership. For people aged 30 to 36, the analysis shows having any student debt significantly hurts your chances of buying a home, compared to college graduates with no debt. The cliche of "good debt" notwithstanding, the consequences of borrowing are real, and they are lasting.
The report paints a mixed picture of how student borrowing has evolved over the last decade, since the financial crisis. There are some bright spots: For example, student loan defaults peaked five years ago and have declined ever since.
And repayment seems to have slowed down among high-balance borrowers —those who owe $75,000 or more. Meaning, after 10 years, they have paid down only one-quarter to one-third of what they owe.
On the face, this isn't necessarily good. But taken alongside the decline in defaults, Fed president William Dudley said in a press briefing Monday, it reflects something good. That is, graduate students, in particular, are signing up for government programs intended to help make payments more affordable.
Source: NPR
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday April 06 2017, @04:12AM
Yes, I'm well aware of what all these programs are and how they function. The costs of Medicare and Medicaid are distorted because the general healthcare market is already so screwed up due to the influence of the private insurance system. Obamacare was just a bandaid on that system that fixed a few big issues while still leaving the market screwed up by profiteering third-parties.
Medicare and medicaid already tend to pay out a lot lower than standard market value for procedures and care, but there's a limit to how much they can limit costs before doctors stop accepting Medicare patients. (Over 20% of American doctors are apparently refusing to take on new Medicare patients these days because the payout is too small.) But the doctors need to do that due to increased costs for everything else in the medical system they are paying.
So yes, Medicare/aid are closer to socialized medicine, but they again don't work efficiently because of the government's other half-assed regulation of the private insurance market.