Get a job, work hard, buy a home and live the American dream.
That was the mantra Amanda Powell, 26, and Justin Cichowski, 28, were chanting when they bought a two-bedroom unit in the Summerside condominium complex in May 2006.
Today, Powell and Cichowski are victims of the Great Recession’s housing slide, starting over as renters with damaged credit.
For the past five years, much of the debate about the housing crisis has pitted caricatures of irresponsible bankers against irresponsible borrowers. But Powell and Cichowski are the more typical victims.
Like so many who came of age during the boom, or were transferred to a new city or faced a life change that led to a home purchase, Powell and Cichowski did what generations before them have done. They got a job, worked hard and bought a home.
