Saturday, February 19, 2011

Recovering Economy = Increase in Divorce

A recent NPR article highlights that because we are experiencing an economic upturn, we are also seeing an increase in divorce filings. This is likely because those that were considering divorce during the recession put it off until they could afford it again. A major issue for almost every divorcing couple is what to do with the marital home. When many couples realized that they were stuck as they could neither sell their home or afford it individually, they decided to wait on divorce.

The University of Virginia's National Marriage Project's report called The Great Recession and Marriage lists that although the recession has been very stressful for couples, there were two silver linings that came of it:
  1. Many couples experienced a deeper commitment to their marriage as a result of the recession; and

  2. Of those considering divorce pre-recession, the recession caused them to postpone or put aside their divorce.

The full NPR article called "For Some Couples, Economic Indicators Say Split" can be found here.