Rick M. had just been laid off from his $125,000-a-year technology job when he applied to buy a $282,000 house in Irving, Texas. While looking for another job, he was making $400 a week as a valet parker.
"I thought I was three months away from finding something," he said.
He had $28,000 for a down payment and nearly $10,000 in reserves but wasn't sure whether his layoff would prevent him from getting the mortgage loan.
It didn't. Now, almost 20 months later, he and his wife work four jobs between them to bring in $50,000 a year. The monthly mortgage payment is $2,190, even after a recent refinancing. And then there's the servicing of nearly $80,000 in credit-card debt and the expense of maintaining a household with a 3-year-old daughter.
For many cash-strapped consumers, the dream of homeownership is turning into a nightmare. Even in an era of low mortgage rates and strong housing values, many borrowers are struggling to meet payments, buffeted by job losses, pay cuts or other unexpected troubles.
Complicating the picture is that lending standards have changed in the past few years, allowing more people to become homeowners. Many now find themselves shouldering a bigger obligation than they would have qualified for in the past.
"Net-net, the increase in homeownership is a positive long-term economic development," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com, a consulting firm. "But there is a dark side to this -- which we are just beginning to see."
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