The Housing Market Is Booming, But Millions of Americans Face Eviction —and the Gap Is Getting Worse
In late February, Jessica Bonner-Gomez, an elementary school speech-language pathologist, signed a yearlong lease for an apartment in Birmingham, Ala. She and her husband, a hospital nurse, thought it would be a temporary move. The couple had recently qualified for a real estate purchase in a housing subdivision, but could only afford the down payment if they tapped into their retirement funds. Ultimately, they decided to save more cash while paying rent.
Bonner-Gomez was making enough to cover expenses and grow her savings. She supplemented her $1,000-per-week income with teaching and tutoring jobs that paid about $400 a week. But when schools shut down in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, those side jobs dried up. Then summer recess started, and her total income dropped to $80 a week. Her husband’s hospital also cut employee wages for several months. To cover their $1,300 monthly rent, plus car payments, health-insurance premiums, groceries and other expenses, the couple depleted their savings accounts and started relying on credit.
“During the summer it was frustrating and hard,” says Bonner-Gomez. “We were accruing debt on the credit card to the point where it was at 80% utilization. That was not a place we wanted to be.”
Bonner-Gomez’s language pathology work restarted with the new school year, and she’s now earning a higher salary. But the couple has lost so much financial standing that in November, a bank representative ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Emily Barone Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Economy Source Type: news
More News: Budgets | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | COVID-19 | Economy | Employment | Harvard | Health | Health Insurance | Hospitals | Insurance | Jobs | Legislation | Nurses | Nursing | Outbreaks | Pandemics | Pathology | Politics | Profits and Losses | Salaries | Sodium Chloride | Speech Therapy | Speech-Language Pathology | Study | Teaching | Unemployment | Universities & Medical Training