Law student Aundria Towns and her partner, health care worker Hayden Herrick, have a household income of more than $100,000. Pre-pandemic, those earnings might have given the Douglas County couple a pick of houses.
Not in 2024.
Weighed down by student loans, $2,000-a-month rent, stubbornly high interest rates and soaring house prices, the couple has put their plans to buy a house in Cobb County on hold. At least for the time being.
“It seems so out of reach. It seems almost impossible,” Towns told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
That is a sentiment shared by millions of Americans struggling to get into starter homes, make rent, or upscale or downsize as the country prepares for the 2024 general election. Although concerns about inflation, food and gas prices are top of voters’ minds, housing is another pain point contributing to unease about the economy.