Almost 18 million Americans are behind on rent or mortgage payments.

Roughly one-third of them, or 5.8 million Americans, said in a survey by the US Census Bureau in November that they expected to face eviction or foreclosure in the coming months. That’s about the size of the population in Singapore.

The survey found that a staggering 50% of households behind on rent or mortgage payments in Arkansas, Florida, and Nevada thought there was a “strong chance” of eviction by early January, when certain moratoriums end.

The CARES Act, which was signed into law in March, allowed homeowners to pause mortgage payments for up to a year because of the pandemic. But they could face foreclosure if they can’t pay when the law expires.

Renters could be evicted even sooner. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s moratorium on evictions is set to end on December 31. Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, told The Washington Post in August that tenants nationwide could owe a total of $70 billion in back rent by the year’s end.

Making matters worse is that many of those who are expected to pay that back rent are also likely receiving unemployment benefits set to expire by the end of the year. A recent report found that about 12 million Americans could lose those benefits on December 26.

The abrupt end to these unemployment benefits could slash income by about $19 billion a month, Nancy Vanden Houten, an economist at Oxford Economics, said in a recent research note cited by CBS News.

“If renters are required to quickly repay past due rent or face eviction, the hardship will fall predominantly on lower-income families who have already been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus crisis,” Vanden Houten said.

To continue reading please go do the source of the article below.

https://www.businessinsider.com/millions-of-americans-face-eviction-foreclosure-in-early-2021-2020-12

Comments

comments