‘I feel trapped’: how home ownership has become a nightmare for many Americans

A row of homes in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Washington DC, on 23 February 2024. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images

“I bought my home in a hurry in 2020,” said Meg, 60, an office manager from Maryland. “It was less expensive to take on a mortgage than to keep paying ever-increasing rents for my college-student daughter and me.”

Now housing costs consume 50% of her income.