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Study: Home Ownership Out Of Reach For Many Americans

BOSTON (CBS) - A new study by researchers at Harvard University finds it's getting harder and harder for Americans to own a home. WBZ business reporter Jeff Brown takes a look at a fading American Dream.

It used to be you'd grow up, get a job, grow a family and buy a house, with a white picket fence.

But that apple pie American Dream is turning into a nightmare for many. So what happened?

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Jeff Brown reports

"The median household is only making as much as it did back in 1995," says Chris Herbert, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

He says income stagnation presents another problem.

"The ability to get a mortgage has become more restrictive," Herbert says.

And not just for first time buyers:

"Even credit worthy borrowers are having a hard time getting a mortgage," Herbert says.

There is one age group that is finding the dream to be an even tougher putt.

"Millennials who are coming of age in a difficult job market," he says, "facing high levels of student debt."

It's the debt that's crippling for young would be buyers, but the trend knows no limits on age.

Established buyers and owners have been hit hard.

"Problems in the housing market and the fact that people saw their house values fall and many foreclosures and also the weak income growth in that group as well," Herbert says.

And so many have turned to or stayed in the rental market, where nearly half of middle age earners spend 30 percent of income to cover the rent.

But Chris tells us he thinks the downward trend is almost bottoming out.

"Last year we started to see the job market get to the point where it's starting to put upward pressure on wages, unemployment rates are down to a level considered close to full employment and households starting to increase their incomes and have more purchasing power. I think that will go a long way toward healing the housing market as well."

The annual study by Harvard finds in the Boston area, slightly more than 60 percent own homes, down even from the recession years.

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