Did the Arizona Housing Bubble Cause More Divorces?

Arizona residents may be interested to learn of some new research that makes a connection between the rate of dissolutions of marriage and the collapse of the real estate market. According to this research, educated people with at least a college education who lived in the states with the highest rates of foreclosures, such as Arizona, saw a rise in divorce rates. Additionally, the research shows that other factors that tend to create stress, such as unemployment, have had no noticeable effect on the rate of divorce.

Poorer people who do marry still get divorced at higher rates than everyone else; these rates have remained unchanged during the recession. But those who could afford to buy a home during the housing bubble appear to be more likely to seek a divorce at the present time.

In fact, the sociologist who conducted this research believes that we may now see a definite uptick in divorce rates for high income earners based on pent-up demand, as revealed by merely plotting the term “divorce lawyer” on a Google search from 2004 to 2011 on a chart. This revealed a clear spike upward in searches starting in 2010.

In any divorce, but particularly in a high asset divorce, careful attention must be given to determining all of the marital assets that are subject to property division. Prenuptial agreements may help. These agreements are a very useful tool in pre-determining how assets acquired by a party prior to the marriage shall be divided should the parties face a divorce. Additionally, a party may have a right to claim spousal support based on the particular history of the marriage and current circumstances of the parties.

Source: New York Magazine, “Do the Rich Get More Recession Divorces?” Lisa Miller, Aug. 16, 2012