Home Foreclosures Can Make You Sick
A paper published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research that an increase of 100 foreclosures corresponded to a 7.2% rise in emergency room visits and hospitalizations for hypertension, and an 8.1% increase for diabetes, among people aged 20 to 49.
Each rise of 100 foreclosures was also associated with 12% more visits related to anxiety in the same age category. And the same rise in foreclosures was associated with 39% more visits for suicide attempts among the same group, though this still represents a small number of patients.
See WSJ article here.
It makes me sick just thinking about it.
The irony of this is that we got ourselves into this mess.
I wonder if the researchers controlled for foreclosures that were the result of strategic defaults where the borrower intentionally defaults because the house is worth far less than they owe?
Fascinating.