Federal reserve shows student debt levels have doubled over the past 10 years, erasing ownership dreams for many. Something policymakers in washington seem to want to ignore. It is no wonder because in our nations capitol the good times keep on rolling. Usually when were talking about houses in washington, were talking about this one. Or this one. But the nations capitol is also home to a rather unusual market, a market that is often called recessionproof. D. C. Went down only about 10 in the downturn and sort of already made that back. A lot less volatile but yes, highpriced and expensive. But also in some degree supported by high levels of income. People get paid a lot here. Gerri when mark fleming says people get paid a lot, he isnt kidding. Six of the nations 10 wealthiest counties are in the d. C. Metro area according to forbes. Falls church, virginia, forbes says more than half houses are valued between half a million and one million dollars. Annual Median Household Income in falls church is more than 121,000. The strong Housing Market reflects a healthy job market. Really is bolstered by a solid fundamental economic diversified economy. There is heavy government base but other things Like Pharmaceuticals and tech here as well. According to the s p caseshiller home price index, homes in d. C. Cost more than twice the National Median and have risen more than 9 over the last year. The washington suburbs sure are doing well, right but if you look right inside of the District Of Columbia itself, Household Income there is only over a, a little over that is, 64,000. Not as good as the burbs. Missing from the housing recovery are younger adults or millenials as theyre called. Homeownership for those 35 and under compared to 43 in 2004. Look at that. What will pull millenials back into the market . We have rick sharga and a chief economist for analytics from trulia. Why do you think millenials have dropped out . Millenials had a rough recession. Their unemployment went up much more than for adults overall. Even now theyre less than halfway back to normal in terms of their jobs recovery. Far fewer of them have a job today than before the recession. Without a job theyre not going to be living on their own and certainly not going to be buying a home. Gerri i understand that the Unemployment Rate among millenials is 15. 5 if you include those people that have stopped looking. Rick what do you ascribe this lack of a firsttime firsttimer group of folks to . What is going wrong with millenials . He just nailed it. It really comes down primarily to look of jobs in the recovery p there are other aspects that go into this as well. Some decided to delay it. Fannie mae did research which indicates millenials are still interested in being homeowners pretty much at same percentages as previous generation but they. Ed to delay it just like theyre delaying getting married and having kids which are two big life events that precipitate a home purchase. Gerri one of the reasons theyre delaying all this spending, because they dont have the money. Not just because the job problem but because they have a lot of college debt. Look at this. The average millenial has 27,000 worth of college debt. This is putting everything on home for them, jed. Do you believe this factors into the Housing Market as well . Student debt is a big challenge for millenials. Means it is harder to save for a down payment and that debt counts in the new qualified mortgage rules that look at your total debt to income when calculating whether you can repay a mortgage. Thats a big challenge. But what we are seeing right now is millenials renting and homebuilders are betting on millenials continuing to rent. Apartment construction hit a 15year high last year. So if were looking for millenials in the housing recovery it is not looking at firsttime home buyers. But when we look at rentals gerri thats where they are. That is where we see recovery. Gerri Median Income is 37,950 bucks. That is renter. That is somebody who can not afford a down payment. What do you think, rick, will entice millenials back into the market . What will get them there . Secondarily, one of the Big Questions i have, a lot of these millenials think it is not cool to own. They think it is cool to own a smartphone. Use uber app, not even have a car. Is there something in fashion, the fashion of traveling light . You know there tends to be that, that trend he among people that cant afford what they really like. In recessions or recoveries they spend money on designer jeans and designer coffee because thats what they can positive ard and makes them feel good. I do think this is generation that will ultimately move into homeownership. Theyre doing it more slowly. Gerri right. I think affordability is an issue. Gerri it is all about affordability. Comes down largely to affordable. The biggest reason they cite for not getting into the market is lack of fund for down payment. Gerri jed, you told me wait until the people have kids. They will be in the Housing Market big sometime. Do you still believe that . Smooth exactly, rental is very urban demand. There are a lost suburban areas that people move to when they approach school age. They need to think about where they want to live today but where they will want to own a home when the kid start turning five. Gerri clearly need to be putting together a down payment. Rick what will it take . Mortgage rates are not that high, right. Theyre pretty low at 4. 22 . Right. Gerri we have a rise in housing prices but theyre still not at 2006 levels. The issue would seem to be inventory. What will it take to get them back in the market . Youre asking the classic chicken and egg question, gerri. Is it lack of inventory keeping buyers off the market or lack of demand from people putting out more inventory . I really dont have a good answer to that one. Look, firsttime homebuyers typically make up 45 to 50 of the market. Right now theyre in the mid 30s. It doesnt pay for a homebuilder right now to build low End Properties for entry level buyers simply because there are not that many of them coming to market. So i think it comes down to as the economy improves a little bit, people start making more money. They start putting money away for that down payment. They can move forward. Gerri jed to you if you have any advice for millenials aspiring to homeownership what would you say . Decision to rent or buy is longterm decision. Millenials often need to move jobs. Their life circumstances might change thinking about marriage or kids. They might have to move to another city. Makes sense to buy if youre staying put for several years. Not only thinking about what your economic circumstances and lifestyle is today but you need to take a longer term view whether to buy or rent. Gerri perspective. You need a little perspective. Rick, jed, thank you for being on today. Thank you. Thanks. If youre look forge a new home, here are some markets where homebuyers have an edge. This is according to realtytrac. Places where prices have actually gone down. Jacksonville, florida. After seeing a 15 rise for third and fourth quarters of last year, this coastal city saw 1 drip in the First Quarter as market couldnt sustain the pace of 2013. Inventories low. There is virginia beach, norfolk and newport news and southeast virginia, a pretty part of the country. Sales prices there have fallen 5 in the First Quarter of this year as federal defense spending has fallen of the area boasts miles and miles of waterfront properties. Greensboro and high point,north. Listen to this, rael at this track found 8 drop in existing home sales in the First Quarter. Theyre blaming millenials. Experts say 18 to 34yearolds account for half of missing homeowners in the region of the instead theyre renting. We have more and more to come this hour including your voice. As you know your voice is important to us. Thats why during the show we wan to you facebook me or tweet me gerriwillisfbn or send me an email gerriwillis. Com. I will read your tweets and emails. Cash is king. Two canning challenge participants are sharing how they are going credit cardfree. There they are. Well talk to them in a minute. Im mary and i have copd. Im jeff and i have copd. Im lisa and i have copd, but i dont want my breathing problems to get in the way of hosting my book club. Thats why i asked my doctor about breo. Oncedaily breo ellipta helps increase airflow from the lungs for a full 24 hours. And breo helps reduce symptom flareups that last several days and require oral steroids, antibiotics, or hospital stay. Breo is not for asthma. Breo contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. It is not known if this risk is increased in copd. Breo wont replace rescue inhalers for sudden copd symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. Breo may increase your risk of pneumonia, thrush, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. Tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high Blood Pressure before taking breo. Ask your doctor about breo for copd. First prescription free at mybreo. Com i got more advice than i knew what to do with. What i needed was information i could trust on how to take care of me and my baby. Luckily, unitedhealthcare has a Simple Program that helps moms stay on track with their doctors and get the right care and guidancebefore and after the baby is born. Simple is good right now. anncr vo innovations that work for you. Thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. Is all ready the brand ofstate the year. D Berkshire Hathaway home services. Good to know. Gerri welcome back to the willis report. It is week six of our cash challenge and each of our participants have been growing strong. Every week we update you how they go about daytoday using cash ownly. Here is how one of our challenge takers found a perfect way to incorporate her cashonly lifestyle. Hey, guys, that time of year and i am so excited. It is the perfect time for cash and fun at garage seas and estate sales. Gerri see how they did at the garage sale. With me are steven and caitlin. You know what . This is week six, week six and you guys are still going strong. Caitlin, how is it going . Are you still charging ahead . Gerri, were having so much fun. Were really enjoying it. Were saving money. We are communicating better. I feel like were staying on our budget better. So we are loving every step of it. Gerri now, i want to talk about this sale and steven, i saw a sign, you guys have to talk about this, it said estate sale. Now was it an estate sale or was it a garage sale . It was an estate sale, gerri. That was an impulse. I was coming back from the gym and i thought, im going to go real quick and of course i found something much. It was in the budget. And i had to get it. I zoomed back home to grab my cash and thought this is a great opportunity to really capture this because you have to pay with cash at garage sales. Gerri they dont swipe your credit card at a garage sale, do they. What do did you buy . Not yet. I bought a chest. We need hail bit more storage and i bought a chest. I will refinish it. That is fun for me. Gerri thats a great idea. Steven, jump in here. Youre happy. Youre on budget. Youre on target. It is going well . Its going well for me. Last month, towards the end i think i communicates that i was having a little bit of difficulty with the numbers coming in a little bit smaller as the month came to an end. Now that weve gotten into the month of may and had a little bit more to work with i am feeling really good where we are with the cash challenge. Im excited to keep going on with this for many more weeks and maybe continue it forever. Well see. Im happy where we are. Gerri very cool. You are on record now. There is no backing out. I know. Good job. It is on tv. It has got to be true. Caitlin, you talked to us about using cash at the checkout. Obviously at the estate sale cash was king but where else . Well i would say selfcheckout is awesome. So of course the estate sale, selfcheckout. Im finding that i like it more at gas stations, weird. Im getting excited about, weve been rounding up all of our purchases, as far as our budget is concerned. It is really fun to collect change that has been exciting for us. So it has been a lot of fun. Gerri so, of course at the gas station makes all sense in the world if you pay less, because they charge less if you give them cold hard cash. Yeah. Gerri what is coming up next week, guys . Well, next week we are going to be visiting some families. Were going to do some traveling that will be really interesting, to see how we can incorporate cash into your travel. So well take lots of pictures and video for you guys. Gerri steven, i have to ask you go right ahead. I was just going to say, one of the things we really havent communicated about yet. That is something well have to talk about soon. Gerri you know, it is all about talking, isnt it . Steven, before we go i want to ask you because this is our poll tonight, how much cash do you carry . How much cash do you carry in your pockets . Oh, it varies but anywhere, probably between 100 and 500. Gerri whoa. Caitlin, do you do the same . He is loaded, gerri. I blow through my cash. It is sad. Then i always have to ask him for cash. I dont have the 500 in there right now. I have 100. But it feels good to have it because i need to spend a little bit tonight on gas. That will probably use up quite a bit of it. Gerri you know, im starting to get the feeling feeling that mek around with more cash than women. Were doing informal surveys of our staff. Well theyre not hitting up the estate sales coming home from the gym, right . Gerri steve, caitlin, thanks for coming on. Good to see you. Thanks, gerri. Gerri do you want to join our cash challenge . Im looking for people who want to go creditcard free. Go to gerriwillis. Com for more details, send me an email. Tweet me gerriwillisfbn. I want you on the show to follow your experiences. We want to know what you think about our question tonight related, how much cash do you carry . Under 50, over 50, none . Log on to gerriwillis. Com. Vote on the righthand side of the screen. I will show the results at the end of tonights show. Later in the show, an obama care contractor is paying workers to sit around and do nothing. We answer a question how do you do that . The majority of americans are storing data online but how do you use the cloud while keeping your Information Safe . We have details coming up. We asked people a question, how much money do you think youll need when you retire . Then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. I was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. Im going have to rethink this thing. Its hard to imagin how much well need for a retirement that could last 3years or mor so maybe we need to approach things dferently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. Gerri it is not all sunshine and rainbows on the cloud. The dangers of storing your data online. Plus tips for protecting your info, coming up. What is this place . Where are we . This is where we bring together the Fastest Internet and the best in entertainment. We call it the x1 entertainment operating system. It looks like the future he has a phaser its not a phaser its my phone he can use his voice to control the tv. You can use your woice . My voice. Your woice. My voice. Vuh, voice. His voice. Your woice . Look. Watch scifi. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. Gerri Stormy Weather may be ahead for one of i. T. s hottest hits. Cloud, you put it up in server farm somewhere in the middle of the country, who knows where it is of the storing data online exploded with popularity with 77 of u. S. Adults reporting to use at least one provider but up loading your data has consequences. Should you use the cloud to begin with . How do you stay safe . Here with answers, with tech know buffalo. Using most out of your technology which what im trying to do every single day. I had a big fight with my ipad today. It was resolved. But in the break you were telling me, the cloud is something, some people dont know theyre using. Really funny. The cloud is everywhere. You cant access the internet. You cant leave the house without accessing cloud in lot of ways. Gerri when you say the cloud, it is not really the cloud. It is not up there. It is down here. Data stored in huge data farms by a lot of big companies. Amazon has f3 server, that simple secure server. That stores things like pinterest to hess gas stations. Security cameras in your house, all kind of different clients they have. Microsoft is yours, another one. Gerri heres my question. Sure. Gerri i am on the cloud because i like to make sure my data is safe but a lot of people out there trust the cloud. Should we trust the cloud . That is sort of the problem because we have the trust the cloud because thats where it is going whether we want to or not. I would put data in places you can trust. Bigname companies are best. You have situations like heartbleed. Gerri heartbleed what do you mean . Back door access that Edward Snowden was talking about that the nsa had where American Companies had these openings that the u. S. Government knew about, didnt really say much about it. That is a trust problem. Why cant we know where our data is and whose hands it is in. The risks are identity theft. Other areas like that, not just oh, someone has your family photos. Gerri it is not perfect. Not necessarily even secure but you have to use it why . Well thats a good question because it is everywhere. If you pick up an iphone and taking pictures theyre automatically backed up to icloud. When youre posting things on pinterest, companies you interact every day are storing in the cloud. Not just what you do. Youre not going on i will up load the files. It is not as simple as that youre dealing with facebook and twitter and credit cards and banks of the these are clients that also store data in the cloud. Gerri this is what i want to know. I have a lot of personal information on ipad. People have personal information on the phones or whatever. What are your favorite storage sites that i could up load stuff to the back up to the back up to the backup. I lo of dropbox. It is great for files. If you want to back up word documents t has really great application inside called carousel where all your pictures can easily be brought up into a really nice al b that is one of my