How 3 households wiped out tons of student debt to become homeowners

Not every 2015 college graduate had student loan debt. But for the graduates who did, the average outstanding debt was more than $35,000.

The mounting debt is a barrier for those who want to move from renting to owning a home but can't because repaying the loans takes priority over saving enough for a down payment.

Still, there are some borrowers who have freed themselves from the heavy responsibility of student debt by repaying their balances faster than most are financially able to. Here are a few of their stories.

Alicia Brown, 31, and her husband, Josh, already own their Florida home, but won't be trading up to another until her remaining student loan balance is paid off.

She graduated with about $13,000 in loan debt and has been using the "snowball" method to reduce her debt load.

Snowballing is the process of ranking your debt obligations from smallest to largest and paying the minimum on all except the one with the lowest balance. Once that's paid off, you apply the payments from the first debt to the second-smallest debt, along with the second debt's minimum payment. The idea is to continue rolling the payment amounts from debts you've paid off into your larger debts until you're essentially debt-free.

Brown's debt payoff target date is February 2017. "We only have about $3,000 left," she says.

"Just having [the smallest debt] paid off, whatever it is, can be so motivating because now you have one less bill," she says.

It's similar to dieting, she says. Once you start seeing the results of eating healthy, your taste buds change and you don't crave junk foods as much.

The desire to start a family was the main motivation for Brad Sherman, 36, and his wife, Abby, to get rid of their $130,000 student debt burden. He inherited his wife's loans from graduate school when they tied the knot.

"We did talk about the student loan debt, so it was not a surprise when we got married," says Sherman, who welcomed his second child in early April.

The Maryland couple paid down about half of the debt before buying their home in 2010 and took a different approach to take care of the rest: building up enough equity to take out a home equity line of credit, or HELOC.

The debt was paid off at the end of 2015.

Don't let student loan debt get in the way of your other financial goals, Sherman says. "It shouldn't stop you from planning for your retirement or buying your first home."

Paying it off at a faster pace is possible if you stick to a budget and commit at least a portion of any windfalls toward paying down the balance.

"We sacrificed vacations and other big purchases to make sure that the debt was paid," Sherman says.

Michigan resident Brad Pettiford, 28, bought his first house in October after repaying his $20,000 student loan balance.

He worked during high school and college, stashing away a portion of his earnings throughout. He made regular loan payments after graduating but eventually paid a lump sum when it became apparent that he and his wife, Jami, would buy a home.

Pettiford suggests taking on side hustles, as long as your schedule allows, to more quickly pay down debt. "Not only is it valuable to earn extra money, but it's also important to save the money that you do have," he says.

Shedding your student loan debt is an admirable financial goal, but you don't have to reach it before becoming a homeowner, says Evan McDonough, a Florida loan officer.

"What we're concerned with is not so much the balance; we're concerned with the payment," McDonough says.

Lenders focus on debt-to-income ratio, or the percentage of monthly income that is spent on debt payments, including mortgages, student loans, auto loans, minimum credit card payments and child support. Most lenders like to see borrowers with debt-to-income ratios of 36 percent or less, so focus on lowering the amount paid on your student debt every month.