Got Student Loans? You Might Still Be Closer to Buying a Home Than You Think

One third of first-time homebuyers carry student loan debt. That means a lot of people who thought they couldn't buy a home are already doing it.

I want to talk about something that holds a lot of people back, and it's not what you might expect. It's student loan debt. I hear it all the time: "Gary, I've got student loans. There's no way I can buy a house." And I get why people feel that way. Student loans can feel like this heavy cloud that just follows you around everywhere, and the idea of adding a mortgage on top of it sounds overwhelming.

But here's the thing. Thirty-three percent of first-time homebuyers in 2025 carried student loan debt. Let me say that again. One out of every three first-time buyers who purchased a home had student loans. That's not a small number. That's a whole lot of people who thought the exact same thing you might be thinking right now, and they found a way to make it work.

Lenders look at your full financial picture

One of the biggest misconceptions I see is that people think having student loans automatically disqualifies them from getting a mortgage. That's just not how it works. Lenders don't zero in on your student loans in isolation and say, "Sorry, you're out." They look at the big picture. Your income. Your credit score. Your overall debt to income ratio. All of it together tells a story, and your student loans are just one chapter of that story.

If you've got steady income, a decent credit score, and you're managing your debt responsibly, you might be in a much better position than you think. And sometimes the monthly payment on a student loan is lower than people assume, which helps your debt to income ratio look better on paper than it feels in your head.

Don't count yourself out before you even try

This is the part that really gets me. So many people eliminate themselves from the conversation before they ever have it. They assume they can't qualify, so they don't even pick up the phone. They don't talk to a lender. They don't ask the questions. And that's the real cost, not the student loans themselves. It's the assumption that closes the door before anyone even checks if it's locked.

I've seen this play out dozens of times. Someone comes to me convinced they're years away from being able to buy, and after we connect them with a lender and they actually run the numbers, it turns out they're ready now. Maybe not for the dream house on day one, but definitely for a home they can be proud of and start building equity in.

That's one of the reasons I do what I do. I'm not here to push anyone into a decision they're not ready for. I'm here to help people understand what's actually possible. When you have the right information, you can make a confident choice instead of operating on fear or assumptions.

The best first step is just a conversation

If you're sitting there with student loans wondering whether homeownership is even in the picture for you, here's what I'd tell you: start with one conversation. Talk to a lender. Let them look at your actual numbers. Not your neighbor's numbers. Not what you read online. Yours.

That one conversation can change everything. It can turn "someday" into "actually, I could start looking this fall." And if the answer is "not quite yet," that's valuable information too, because now you have a plan instead of just a worry.

I've been doing this for over 20 years, and the thing I've learned is that the people who get ahead in real estate are the ones who ask questions early. Not the ones who wait until everything feels perfect, because that day never comes. They ask the questions, they get the facts, and then they make a move when the time is right.

Student loans don't define your financial future. What you do with the information in front of you does.