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Real estate agents got $3.9 billion in Covid relief PPP loans. The housing market boomed, but few repaid the loans.
While Covid was battering the U.S. economy, Gary Goldberg seems to have done OK. During 2020, the pandemic’s first year, the Santa Barbara, California, real estate agent sold more than $27 million worth of luxury homes, slightly down from the $31 million he closed the year before, according to data from Zillow. In 2021, he sold $82 million worth of real estate. He also applied for and received two loans totaling $95,832 via the federal government’s Covid relief Paycheck Protection Program, according to public records. In his applications, he listed one employee. He asked for the first loan on April 15, 2020, and the second on Jan. 30, 2021. Federal records show…