Research by the real estate site Zillow suggests that while student debt can inhibit the probability that a person will be able to buy a home, it will have less of an effect on those who have earned a degree.

Jamie Anderson, writing for Zillow Real Estate Research, says a heavy student loan burden has been cited as a key reason why younger Americans are unable or reluctant to buy a home. This debt can make it more difficult to save enough money for a down payment or achieve an adequate debt-to-income ratio to qualify for a loan, and borrowers might also worry about the effect on their credit score if they miss mortgage payments or have to default on the loan.

However, Anderson says those who finish a four-year degree or higher are less likely to be significantly affected by student loan debt. Using the average income and accumulated wealth for different educational degrees, the study determined the probability of homeownership for a married 33-year-old couple with children.

Households where at least one member of the couple had a doctorate degree had an 87 percent probability of homeownership when they had no student loan debt. This probability was the least likely to be affected by student loans, falling only to 84 percent when the household had a debt of $50,000.

The probability of homeownership for households with a bachelor's degree was also unlikely to be affected by student loan debt. The study calculated a homeownership probability of 70 percent for households where at least one member had a bachelor's degree without debt, and this dropped only to 66 percent for a student loan debt of $50,000.

Households with at least one master's degree were the second most likely to be able to buy a home, with a probability of 80 percent when they had no student loans to pay back. The probability fell to 75 percent for a student loan debt of $50,000.

People who earned an associate's degree were more likely than those with a bachelor's degree to be able to buy a home when debt-free, but this probability dropped more precipitously as the student loan amount increased. While a household with at least one associate's degree had a 73 percent probability of buying a home when student loans were paid off, this probability dipped to 57 percent if they racked up a debt of $50,000.

The study concluded that households where neither member of the couple had completed a degree had a 48 percent of buying a home. If they accumulated $50,000 in debt without having a diploma to show for it, the probability plummeted to 33 percent.

Anderson says older households generally have higher incomes, so the model had to control for age and income. The model also took children, marital status, and wealth into consideration.

The study determined that renter to homeowner ratios among different levels of education also seem to indicate that student loans do not present a major barrier to buying a home. This proportion remains relatively constant between households with doctorate, master's, bachelor's, and associate's degrees.

The study notes that households with higher degrees have accumulated more student debt, but they also earn a higher average income. In a Zillow analysis of the 2013 Panel Study of Income Dynamics from the University of Michigan, households with a doctorate had an average student loan debt of $93,000 but earned an average income of $133,000 a year.

The average debt dropped to $34,000 for households with a master's degree, while average annual income stood at $108,000. Those with bachelor's degree were paying back an average of $20,000 in student loan debt while earning $81,000 a year, while households with an associate's degree had $8,000 in student loan debt and an annual income of $60,000. Households without a degree still had $4,000 in student loans on average, while earning an average income of $40,000 a year.