President Barack Obama sympathizes with all those young college graduates out there who are still living with their parents — but he really doesn’t have a solution for them.
The POTUS participated in a livestream question-and-answer session on Wednesday with Zillow.com, a real estate site. He fielded questions about the housing market and how the government is going to help Americans who are struggling in the current economic environment.
But the President didn’t have answers for questioner Jacob — and other young college graduates like him — who moved back into his parents’ home after finding that the job market didn’t allow him to earn enough money to pay off his student loans and afford his own place.
“We need more affordable, quality rental housing,” the President responded, since Jacob had specifically said he wasn’t even looking to buy a home at this point.
Obama noted that many young people are pouring all their extra finances into their loans, instead of investing in long-term housing.
“What for their parents would have been the down payment on a home right now is going to service their student loan debt,” he said.
The President then transitioned into what he’s doing to lower higher education costs. And while those initiatives might help current and future students afford housing — and thereby help the housing market as well — they do nothing to help recent graduates who have moved back in with mom and dad.
Obama also ‘answered’ Jacob’s question by talking about immigration reform, something that again really doesn’t help the young graduate find an affordable house or apartment to rent.
So for the 1 in 3 young Americans who are living with their parents, Obama has no solution. Nor does he seem to care, laughing with Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff that Americans keep their wealth in housing.
“So if you’ve got trillions of dollars tied up in housing, if we get that right, then it makes a big difference everywhere else,” Obama closed.
Except it doesn’t make a difference for those young Americans living with their parents due to the overwhelming burden of debt — the same young Americans who almost singlehandedly carried Obama to two terms as President.
