Increased student loan debt has been singled out as a drag on the housing market because it forces young grads to postpone major life events, including homebuying. Economic forecasters are calling for a big-picture approach to student loan modification.

First of all, it’s not that easy. Regulatory restrictions on modification of federal student loans is one factor; market forces are another.

Let’s take the first one. Banks offer federal student loan products through partnerships with Sallie Mae. Reduction of principle is not an option. Their product choices involve interest rate reductions for borrowers with good payment records; other choices include deferred payment, interest only payment, adjustable-rate or fixed-rate payments.

Now, the second one. Private lenders have more leeway in what they can offer, but market conditions  aren’t drawing too many participants into this arena. The overwhelming bulk of student loans are serviced by just a handful of players; the smaller institutions offer student-loan packages as something to round out their product offerings, rather than a staple.

Rohit Chopra, assistant director and student loan ombudsman for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, addressed that bank last November. He said he didn’t think the student loan market poses an immediate threat to large financial institutions the way the mortgage market meltdown did five years ago. “But in some ways, this reduces the urgency for action. And inaction bears the risk of economic drag,” he stated. He urged policymakers to take a lesson from the consequences of structural deficiencies in the mortgage market.

There’s the irony. Today’s students are less likely to be tomorrow’s homeowners unless this problem can be addressed, and that’s particularly important here in high-cost Massachusetts. When today’s grads seek to start families and settle down, it might not be here. They’d only stay long enough to build their resumes, and then move to lower-cost areas to get on with their lives.

Back to the near-term picture. A caveat is that student loans are only part of the overall college-debt iceberg. The economy in which many of today’s outstanding student loans were made is structurally much weaker than it was in the year 2000, just before the dot-com bust. Back then, the economy and parents’ 401(k)s were both humming along. Home equity loans and retirement-fund drawdowns went to fund college educations. Combined with student loans, that put an awful lot of money in the trough, and one could argue that there was too much money chasing too little educational value.

That’s why fixing the student loan problem will be a lot more difficult than fixing the mortgage problem. You can’t put a college education up for a short sale to get some of your money back. Getting a good job is the only sustainable solution. And for Massachusetts, keeping those good jobs here is of the essence.