Home ownership goals are down, but why?

Millennial home ownership rates being down is not a revelation. In fact, it is fairly well established by now that the debt-saddled generation isn't even sure home ownership still counts as part of the American dream.  But a new survey from credit monitor Experian suggests that home ownership is not part of the plan for a growing segment of Americans.

According to the 1,000-person survey, researchers report that 27 percent of respondents reported that they are not planning to buy a home within five to 10 years, up 8 percent since just last year. Among those reporting their reluctance to buy were millennials, but also home buyers in the west, where real estate prices are rising precipitously.

The youngest survey respondents — the 18- to 36-year-old pool — reported significant reluctance to ever purchasing a home, with 34 percent of that group opting out of ownership altogether. And while most respondents reported that houses were less affordable, people opting out of home ownership cited a desire for flexibility and an aversion to carrying much debt (when you've already got a mortgage equivalent in school loans, another one can sound anathema). Among those opting out, 23 percent also reported that they were worried about rising interest rates under the Trump administration.

While millennials might appear to be on the hook for opting out of the real estate clause of the American Dream, it is interesting to consider that the survey also found frustrations among other groups — those with lower incomes and first-time home-buyers, mainly — with the home-buying process itself. It's important to remember that first-time home-buyers and lower-income buyers (to the extent that is not an oxymoron) are certainly not limited to the maligned millennials among us.