2. Debt Amounts to More Ownership – Since at least 2004, as the graph shows, homeownership rates for potential buyers with a college education and the debt that so often accompanies it have eclipsed rates for buyers without student debt. Since 2007 and the housing crash, ownership rates have declined for both groups, with the individual rates coming closer to a universal figure. But, as of 2010, homeownership rates for buyers with college and debt still trumped those without by approximately 2 percent.