- Name: Martha Amabile, 61
- Place: Tolleson, Ariz.
The economy in Arizona was horrible. It still is horrible.
I'm a single mom, having raised two sons. I had a good job at a law firm, saved my money, bought a house in 1991. I lived there 16 years and then I sold it to buy a second home, putting down $35,000. I was then working for an engineering firm for 10 years when, because of the economy, I was laid off in 2010. It took four months to find a job, making $20,000 less than I had made before.
I lost my home. Because the housing market tanked, and home prices were so low, my son got pre-approved for a home loan for me, and I took $20,000 out of my 401(k) to purchase a house. My $202,000 home sold for $74,000, so you get an idea of the market I was trying to buy in. But guess what? Investors flooded to Arizona and after trying for a year, I had to give up because I could not outbid them (most paid cash) and now my down payment money was almost gone. So now I am forced to rent in a home I'm paying three times what I would be paying had I been able to buy a home. My 401(k) is almost all gone.
I did everything right and I had no control over what happened. Ironic that the government bails out the people responsible for this crisis, yet I now owe them a fortune because I had to use my retirement money to live.
When you're 61 years old, you don't come back from this unless you win the lottery.