WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans say they are worried about making their mortgage or rent payments, underscoring the extent of economic anxiety in the country heading into midterm elections.
A new Washington Post poll shows that concerns about housing payments have spiked since 2008 despite some improvements in the overall economy. In all, 53 percent said they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about having the money to make their monthly payment. Worries are the most intense among those with lower incomes and African-Americans.
These concerns can be boiled down to one thing: jobs, said Karen Dynan, who worked as an economist for the Federal Reserve and on President George W. Bush’s council of economic advisers.
“The unemployment rate is still very, very high, so if you think of it as being about the odds of someone losing their job and not being able to find another, there’s good reason to be concerned about being able to make mortgage payments,” said Dynan, now co-director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution.
Worry is twice as high among those with household incomes less than $30,000 as it is among those with $75,000 annual incomes.
Fully 75 percent of African-Americans are concerned about a mortgage or rent, including a majority, 55 percent, who are “very concerned.” Despite the anxiety, 61 percent of those polled call it a “good time” to buy a house. That’s true for the majorities of Republicans (70 percent), Democrats (61 percent) and independents (59 percent) alike.
The poll was conducted by telephone Oct. 21 through Sunday and included interviews with 1,006 randomly selected adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
