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Comment by MattGaiser | Hacker News Reader

How many of the unemployed are wealthy enough to own though?

Canada is facing surging real estate prices and while there are also masses of unemployed, few of those people had the money for home ownership anyway.

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Unemployed people probably aren't buying new homes. But if they are getting unemployment check, they might be paying their mortgages on existing homes. Also, even if they stop paying their mortgages, they can't be foreclosed on in many states. Also, banks are deferring their payments, because it's not in their interests for people to foreclose, but they will only delay those payments for so long. My point is that once those unemployment checks cease and foreclosures resume, prices can drop significantly.

In Oklahoma right now you can be unemployed and earning $58,240 in annualized unemployment pay. That number will drop to $27,040 (still annualized) at the end of July unless the Congress intervenes. However, even $27k in Oklahoma would be enough to afford a small house in the suburbs of a city.

>However, even $27k in Oklahoma would be enough to afford a small house in the suburbs of a city.

Sounds like I need to move to Oklahoma... I'm making about $44k in rural South Dakota but with the way housing prices have been around here the last few years, I am nowhere near being able to comfortably afford a mortgage (I can afford one, for a cheap, old, needs-a-lot-of-TLC-or-30-miles-out-of-town house, but not while also affording much else).

I have friends who live there and go on and on about the cheap cost of living. I’ve visited and it wasn’t a place I wanted to live. To each their own. It does seem absurdly cheap.

Do lenders let you get a mortgage if your income is unemployment payments that run out in 20 weeks? I would assume not, but maybe there are regulations that require them not to consider the source of the income if its from unemployment.

It’s not unemployed people getting new loans, it’s that they can continue to pay their existing loans preventing foreclosures and a drop in housing prices. Banks absolutely consider source of income, length of employment, type of employment.

I think the point is that they weren't previously unemployed. In rural areas housing is vastly more affordable than urban or city areas. In my home town in West Virginia there are multiple homes and mobile homes with land in fair condition for < $100k.

Because the unemployment % number isn't calculated in a way that represents the real-world unemployment situation.

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