Should-Read: Kavya Vaghul: The student loan crisis is fueled by a weak labor market: "Holger M. Mueller and Constantine Yannelis... investigate how massive declines in home prices during the Great Recession... http://equitablegrowth.org/equitablog/value-added/the-student-loan-crisis-is-fueled-by-a-weak-labor-market/
...led to large drops in employment and corresponding rising student loan defaults over that same period.... Falling home prices during the Great Recession were responsible for up to 32 percent of the growth in student loan defaults. What’s more, low-income borrowers appeared to be most sensitive to the change in home prices, probably because they faced the largest earning plunges, had the smallest savings cushions, and, as a result, may not have been able to continue repaying their loans...