Dive Brief:

• Student loan debt and under-employment are making it difficult for 20-somethings – the people who used to drive home-buying – to hold onto that role.
• Research firm Trulia says it has found that 93% of renters aged 18-to-34 would like to buy a home someday, but there is little prospect of doing that.
• The inability to buy because of debt and the damage the recession did to the job market is a driver for multifamily housing, which Trulia estimates hit 282,000 building starts in 2013, the highest number in 26 years.

Dive Insight:

Trulia's data jibes with people who have been saying that while the home-building recovery has been good. The recovery cannot reach its potential until the economy generates enough jobs for unemployed or under-employed people. Another wrinkle that is not as quantifiable is that the people who cannot buy have been renters so long – or even lodgers in their parents' homes – that they may be getting to like that option.