Orlando - Health problems rise with foreclosure rates - Princeton Economist

[sharon sanders]

Health problems rise with foreclosure rates
By Marni Jameson, Orlando Sentinel
October 2, 2011

snip


For every 100 foreclosed properties in a community, ER and hospital admissions went up 7.2 percent for hypertension and 8.1 percent for diabetes among those aged 20 to 49, the researchers found.


snip

Warning signs

Besides feelings of anxiety, other warning signs that financial stress may be affecting health are arguing more with family members, experiencing changes in eating or sleeping habits, and drinking more alcohol or using other drugs more, Allen said.

more...

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/os-health-foreclosure-20111002,0,6314496.story

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Re: Orlando - Health problems rise with foreclosure rates - Princeton Economist

Sometimes it's almost a never-ending nightmare. to SandyD for this article about increasing numbers of deficiency judgments:

House Is Gone but Debt Lives On

(snips)

In Lee County, Fla., where Mr. Reilly's vacation home was, court records show that 172 deficiency judgments were entered in the first seven months of 2011. That was up 34% from a year earlier.

Sophisticated investors are "ravenous for this debt and ramping up their purchases," ...deficiency judgments will eventually be bundled into packages that resemble mortgage-backed securities.

Silverleaf Advisors LLC, is one investor in battered mortgage debt. Instead of buying ready-made deficiency judgments, it buys banks' soured mortgages and goes to court itself to get judgments for debt that remains after foreclosure sales.

Full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...atestHeadlines

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Re: Orlando - Health problems rise with foreclosure rates - Princeton Economist

Stress of foreclosure can make homeowners ill
Studies find illness rises where foreclosures highest
December 30, 2011|By Bob LaMendola, Sun Sentinel

...found that people who go through home foreclosures suffer more stress-related illnesses, from high blood pressure to depression to heart trouble to nausea.

With foreclosures expected to begin rising again in the coming year...

"We're beginning to [prove] the causal relationship. We're finding that foreclosure actually does lead to poor health," said Dr. Craig E. Pollack, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University who led several of the studies. "As foreclosures go up, so will the number of people who get sick."

Full 2 page article with some bits of advice: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/201...nselors-stress

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Re: Orlando - Health problems rise with foreclosure rates - Princeton Economist

I'm not so sure that this correlation is a causation. It seems simliar to me to the correlation between increased ice cream sales and drownings. Some third factor (hot weather in the case of the ice cream sales, poverty in the case of the foreclosures) would be causing both trends.

I don't think the argument is that foreclosures cause helath problems; it is that the same factors that cause foreclosures also caused health problems.