Study links student loans with lower net worth, housing values after college

``"After controlling for various student characteristics and parental income, we found that having student loan debt when people graduated or dropped out of college compromised their ability to accumulate wealth afterward," said principal investigator Min Zhan, a professor of social work at the University of Illinois. For black young adults, leaving college burdened with student loans may be especially detrimental, diminishing their net worth by 40 percent compared with white students, the researchers found.''