The delay feels like it could be more open-ended for Matthew McCabe, who is staring down age 40 and long odds on ever owning property. He has paid about $25,000 back to the government for his student loans, yet he still owes $86,000 for the Ph.D. in music composition that he received in 2010.

“It’s stifling,” he said. “I feel like I am moving in the wrong direction.”

Mr. McCabe expected to own a little place by now. “Maybe I am pulling too much on my middle-class expectations, but that’s what you’re supposed to do,” he said.

He grew up in New Jersey, and lived in a house in the suburbs that his parents owned. His parents paid for him to go to a private high school, and for most of college. But Mr. McCabe had to take out loans for his doctoral degree in music. He makes $55,000 a year teaching at the Columbus State University, in Georgia, and earns an extra couple thousand by giving summer classes.

He pines after the cute little houses in historic Columbus that he walks by on the way to work. The town’s quaint vibe suits him. It is relatively cheap to live there. His neighbors have told him they would prefer to have more owners in the area. There is no way he could pull together a down payment right now, though.

“I am not in a financial position to think about buying a house,” he said. “I don’t have a piece of land to build up on, a home base.”

In contrast, Mr. McCabe’s brother didn’t take out loans for graduate school. He started working right after college, and now he has two children and owns his home. Mr. McCabe could have gone that route, but he loves teaching music, and he offers that he has already paid plenty back to Uncle Sam.

He has made payments “like clockwork” every month, he said, because he thought he would qualify for a loan forgiveness program the government provides to public service employees. But he found out last summer that he would not be able to get a break on the debt.

Still, whenever he walks by a house on his block with a “for sale” sign, he can’t help gazing longingly at it.