The majority of Chicago's millennials want to buy a home, a new report found, but they're held back by a lack of knowledge, debt and other issues. View Full Caption Shutterstock

DOWNTOWN — The vast majority of Chicago millennials want to buy a home — but they can't afford to do it, according to a new report.

The report, from rental search site Apartment List, found Chicagoans born between 1982 and 2004 underestimate how much they'll need for a down payment. At the same time, there's an affordable housing shortage, and this age group faces high student loan debt and "stagnant career opportunities," the report said.

That means a significant number of millennials will be left "renting for years," according to the report, which used survey results from 24,000 millennials to study the generation and its homebuying habits throughout the country. It found 80 percent of millennials in Chicago want to buy a home, but 70 percent are waiting because they can't afford one.

"It doesn't seem achievable to a lot of people, so why would they change their lives if they feel like it's impossible?" said Laura Rupp, 34, of Jefferson Park, who saved with her fiancé for six years to find a suitable — and affordable — home in Chicago.

Millennials are also underestimating how long it could take to save for a down payment: They expect it to take 5.7 years, but it might take more than a decade based on how they're saving now, according to the report.

Rupp and her fiancé, Chad Ramos, 35, know the homebuying struggle. They moved into a bedroom in Rupp's mother's home for what they thought would be a month but ended up living there for more than a year as they saved money. They gave up nights out with friends and cut back on luxuries like nights out at the bar.

Despite pinching pennies, it took Rupp and Ramos six years to save for their home.

Finding an affordable home was itself a challenge for the couple. Rupp and Ramos discovered homes in their original budget were usually "fixer-uppers," even if the prices weren't low, Ramos said. Or they'd have to "wait in line" to see quality, affordable homes the day they were put on the market — and the owners wanted more than the asking price by the next day, Rupp said.

"We could have bought a home three times this size if we didn't have student loan debt," Rupp said. "But no one else that I know that had a job and was trying to buy a [house] ever had to look as long as we did. It was almost kind of comical when we'd talk to people about it, like, 'Yeah, we're still looking,' or, 'Yeah, we're still saving.'"

The couple had "no idea" what they would need to save or what they'd have to do, Rupp said, and even when they turned to banks they received misinformation about what they'd need to put down on a home.

Rupp and Ramos finally found a home in Jefferson Park in April 2014 and spent $25,000 on the down payment, closing costs and other fees.

"Currently, we are paying more a month in our student loans than our mortgages," Ramos said. "And we're fortunate to be able to do that. Don't get me wrong, we got to a place where we could do that. But early on, when we were trying to save money for [the house], there's no way we could have done any of it."

Some of their peers are "looser" with their money than the couple was when saving for a house, Ramos said, which could be contributing to the struggles they're having with buying homes.

As for advice, the couple said to avoid buying a car if possible, and to cut back on nights out to the bar or fancy dinners. Picking up "side hustles," or side jobs, can also help save money while expanding your professional options, Rupp said.

Still, Rupp said juggling steep student loan debt and buying a house at the same time is no easy task.

"It would be a battle not even uphill, up mountains," Rupp said. "A really unachievable goal."