Debtors will have to repay student loans: 'We won't be able to afford a new house'

More than three years after student loan payments were paused and interest rates were cut to zero, borrowers will have to resume payments in October, the Education Department has announced.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether President Biden has the authority to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan debt per borrower, and up to $20,000 for those who received Pell Grants, notes Fox's Breck Dumas. But that won't stop repayments for those who owe more.

Repaying "crushing" student loans will be difficult for debtors, writes Terry Collins on USA Today.

A school principal who borrowed $203,000 for a bachelor's, master's and PhD say she can't afford the $600 monthly payment on her $100,000 salary.

A young couple, both environmentalists, owe $42,000 combined. They plan to "cut back on shopping for organic food and their hobby of growing their own food, for starters." But plans for a bigger house may be out of reach.

. . . "We're mostly worried that we are not going to be able to afford a new house anymore. This is . . . quite life-altering."

Another couple with a combined $132,000 in student debt "used the payment pause to buy new appliances, including a refrigerator and oven for their home, and also a new car after their old vehicle's engine died," reports Collins.

The White House kept the pandemic "emergency" going as long as possible, but perhaps there will be a new emergency, writes Andrew Sullivan. Biden staffers' favorite constituency is educated cultural elites with student loans, he writes. "I think the climate emergency is calling, and it says it needs debt-free modernist literature PhDs and all mortgages (in Fort Greene, Rockridge, and Silverlake) to be forgiven."