Another Reason that Aldi and Grocery Outlet Continue to do well

More than a third of Americans have been forced to cut spending on essential items like food and utilities to afford housing, according to a Freddie Mac study.

About 42 percent of renters and 33 percent of homeowners have had to reduce the money spent on essentials, including food, to cover the cost of housing during the prior two years, the report said.  

“Our research confirms much of what we see in our business every day — affordability remains the essential factor when it comes to determining whether to rent or purchase a home, and the cost of housing is having a significant impact on households of every age, size and location,” said David Brickman, president and incoming CEO of Freddie Mac, as Yahoo reports. 

Freddie Mac conducted the online survey from 4,040 respondents over the age of 18.

“While we tend to focus primarily on wages not keeping up with house prices and misperceptions of down payments, we should also recognize that for many millennials and Gen Xers, the basic cost of living has gone up,” says Brickman, as Yahoo cited. 

Student debt has more than doubled over the past decade to more than $1.6 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. Of millennials who rent, 51 percent said they based their choice of housing on their student loan payments.

31 percent of renters and 45 percent of homeowners reported choosing cheaper housing to afford daycare, according to Freddie Mac.

About 35 percent of homeowners who reported trouble affording housing in the last two years had to move to find a more affordable place to live, an increase of nine percent since last August.