By Katie Kelton, CCC, Bankrate.com

You’ve lost your job. Who are you going to call?

It might have to be your mortgage lender.

A cooling job market is colliding with high homeownership costs, putting many people into a particular new squeeze: a loss of income and a monthly payment that was already hard to manage. At the same time, 42% of homeowners report expensive hidden costs and 16% say their mortgage payment is too high in Bankrate’s 2025 Home Affordability Report . Bankrate talked to recently laid off homeowners to find out how they’re dealing with it.

“I was definitely stressed out,” says Taylor Brione Ballard, 33, who lost her job at a nonprofit only a month after locking in a new mortgage.

“I did take some time to cry, and then I had to get my big girl pants on.”

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