by Calculated Risk on 4/20/2014 08:39:00 PM

An article from Tim Logan at the LA Times on a subject I've discussed with several people via email: Student debt holds back many would-be home buyers

Of the many factors holding back young home buyers — rising prices, tougher lending standards, a still-shaky job market — none looms larger than the recent explosion of college debt.

The amount owed on student loans has tripled in a decade, to nearly $1.1 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. People in their 20s and 30s — often the best-educated and highest-earning among them — owe most of that tab. That is keeping a crucial segment of home buyers on the sidelines, deferring one of the traditional markers of adult success.

Monday:
• At 8:30 AM ET, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for March. This is a composite index of other data.

Weekend:
• Schedule for Week of April 20th

From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures: the S&P futures are up 3 and DOW futures are up 35 (fair value).

Oil prices are up recently with WTI futures at $104.25 per barrel and Brent at $109.53 per barrel.

Below is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally prices are around $3.63 per gallon (up sharply over the last ten weeks and more than 10 cents above the level of a year ago).  If you click on "show crude oil prices", the graph displays oil prices for WTI, not Brent; gasoline prices in most of the U.S. are impacted more by Brent prices.

Orange County Historical Gas Price Charts Provided by GasBuddy.com