In October 2022, Stephen Drew, along with his wife Laura and their two sons, found themselves compelled to relocate for the third time in merely six year. Doctors had discovered a tumor in Drew’s brain—originally thought to be cancerous, “very rare, and also very fatal,” Drew says. His case underwent extensive assessment by top review boards at the University of Oklahoma before medical professionals recommended that Drew seek treatment at Northwestern University.
With this diagnosis, Drew had to sell his home in Oklahoma City where he and his family had lived for just about a year and move back to Crystal Lake, Illinois. He had bought the Oklahoma City home in October 2021 for $385,000 at a 3.2% mortgage rate on a $45,000 salary as a pastor. But the sale of this home at $450,000 (generating $104,000 in equity) still wasn’t enough to cover a new home purchase back in Illinois. He was effectively priced out of the housing market there, thanks to rising home prices and mortgage rates.
