Less divorce cases in Spain due to financial crisis

The number of divorce cases has been reduced due to financial crisis.
Europa Press

Last year 118.939 marriages broke down in Spain, after National Statistics Institute data, more of 70% of them were made by mutual consent. The average broken marriage last 15 years and finishes at the age of 41. More than 50% of couples had children under legal age.

Experts claim that as the country’s economic problems worsen, more couples are finding the cost of divorce and separate households beyond their reach.

Gonzalo Pueyo, of the Spanish Association of Family Lawyers, said: “In eras of plenty, divorces are more frequent. But when times are tough, many couples decide to maintain stability and their standard of living rather than split the household and incur all those extra costs. They may live in the same house but not be a couple.”

Ander Gurrutxaga, professor of sociology at the University of the Basque Country, conducted a study that found some middle-class couples who split saw their standard of living drop drastically. “Some are forced to live like students when they are no longer that age or want that life,” he said.

The skyrocketing foreclosure rate is hitting divorcing couples hard. For the average divorcing couple the expense of maintaining two households, where there had been only one, is a financial challenge even in good times. Throw in a job loss, ballooning mortgage payments and overextended credit obligations, and the odds of facing a mortgage default goes through the roof.

Negative-Equity Mortgages.
Because of expensive mortgages and falling home values, many homeowners now have negative equity in their homes, meaning that the value of the homes have fallen below the mortgage balances. Consumers with negative-equity mortgages are sometimes referred to as being underwater or upside down. This becomes problematic if the homeowners have to sell in a divorce; if such a home is sold at market rate, the proceeds would no longer be enough to pay off the mortgage. Even if all proceeds were applied to the mortgage, the mortgagor would still be liable for the balance of the loan.