For a growing share of Americans, homeownership remains out of reach. Interest rates have been at a two-decade high, and the Federal Reserve plans to keep them there until inflation cools. Many Americans are saddled with debt; delinquency rates on credit cards and auto loans are at a 10-year high, more than 43 million Americans owe $1.6 trillion in federal student loans, and the interest rate for such loans just hit a 12-year high. At the same time, housing costs keep climbing higher.

As of February, prices were still rising in 85 percent of U.S. cities, making it 60 percent cheaper to rent a home than to buy one in every top metro area. In Austin and Seattle, for example, the monthly cost of buying a starter home is 142 percent and 121 percent greater, respectively, than the average rent in each. In Phoenix the average monthly rent is half the baseline required to buy. According to S&P’s home affordability index, homes in more than half of U.S. states are unaffordable