When you're young, you're supposed to live like a starving student.

But not forever.

Housing costs are so crazy in Los Angeles that people with perfectly respectable incomes (anywhere else in the nation) find themselves stuck in a perpetual world of instant ramen.

A new national report on millennials and home ownership says more than eight out of 10 (83 percent) millennial renters in L.A. believe they can't afford a home here.

They probably believe right, since it takes about a six-figure household income just to buy a median-priced, half-million-dollar house in this market.

The report was released this week by Apartment List. 

It found that three-fourths of local millennial renters want their own home but know they can't afford it.

“Seventy-six percent of millennial renters in the Los Angeles Metro area want to purchase a home, but affordability is the biggest obstacle they face,” an Apartment List spokesman said.

The typical millennial renter in L.A. is preparing to buy a home (someday), with an average savings of $5,280 in-hand, the report says. “Based on current saving rates, it will take 20 years for them to afford a home,” the spokesman said.

Apartment List analyzed input from 30,000 renters in 130 U.S. cities, the site says.

It found that millennial renters in L.A. expect to get a starter home with a down payment of $42,690. They would actually need $65,800, the report says. That's a 154 percent increase over expectations.

“In nearly all the metros we looked at, affordability was the No. 1 reason for delaying home ownership,” the site said, “but millennials on the West Coast struggled the most: Portland, San Diego, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco all had more than 80 percent of renters listing affordability as a concern.”

Keep dreaming.

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