Poll highlights economic challenges for young voters

(The Hill) — The majority of voters under 30 said it has become harder to buy a house, raise a family and get a good job in comparison to the previous generations, according to a new poll.

In a survey published Sunday by CBS News, 82 percent of respondents said they think it is more difficult to purchase a home than it was for previous generations, while 76 percent said the same for raising a family.

This comes as the Federal Reserve’s interest rates remain at a 23-year high, prolonging the housing affordability challenges for many Americans.

Inflation appears to have plateaued in recent months, having dropped drastically from its 9 percent peak two years ago. While this spells good news, the Fed noted this month that the economy is still too hot, the labor market is still too strong, and prices are still rising too fast to start cutting rates.

Mortgage rates continued to rise this spring, topping 7 percent last month for the first time this year.

About 70 percent of voters in the poll said securing a good job is harder than in the past, even in the wake of recent strong job numbers. According to the May jobs report, payrolls increased by 272,000 and wage growth ticked upward in a reversal of a three-month downward trend.

Coupled with these challenges, the majority of voters under 30 years old believe the older generations are leaving them with a bad environment, less opportunities and a more dangerous world, pollsters noted.

While young voters overwhelmingly have concerns about the current state of the world, most voters under 30 — 62 percent — still have optimism about attaining the “American Dream.” Thirty-two percent said they won’t reach it, while 6 percent said they already have.

The CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted June 17-24 among a sample of 2,460 adults, including an oversample of 743 adults ages 18-29. The total sample has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points, while the oversample has a margin of error of 5.2 points.