The absence of home buying is much more prevalent among people who never went to college.

The Detroit News reports.

College debt no drain on home buying, UM prof says

Is college debt truly keeping a generation of young adults from buying homes?

That’s been the popular storyline as people in their 20s have shunned the housing market since the housing crash. Economists seeking explanations for a change in behavior, and worried about a long-term drag on the economy, have theorized that the slowdown was due largely to a record level of student loan debt in the country — about $1.3 trillion. The narrative: Struggling recent college graduates can’t buy homes and will continue to be deterred from buying because they are shackled with immense college loans.

But Susan Dynarski, a University of Michigan economics professor and fellow of the Brookings Institution, is challenging that argument in a new paper. She says that a surprising number of respected economists have adopted an alluring narrative of millennials unable to buy homes even though it’s one built on flawed evidence that has been debunked by research done for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors more than a year ago.