Unable to afford a place of her own, DeLong last month moved with her two daughters from Arcanum to her parent’s home in Greenville.
She shudders to think what would have happened if she did not have her parents to rely on.
“I am really lucky because there are many people in the same situation who probably don’t have that backup,” DeLong said.
A growing body of research indicates that some couples are choosing not to get divorced or are delaying severing ties because of the troubled economy.
Other unhappy couples are choosing to continue living under the same roof even while going through a divorce.
A 2009 poll by the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts found that 68 percent of analysts had clients who could not afford to get divorced because of economic woes related to the recession.
According to the National Marriage Project, a group that studies marriage trends in the U.S., both marriage and divorce rates fall in recessions.
“The divorce rate fell to 16.9 per 1,000 married women in 2008, down from 17.5 in 2007,” the group’s 2009 report states.
Local figures seem to mirror the national trends. Since the recession began, divorce and dissolution filings across the Miami Valley have fallen by 7.7 percent or more in some counties.
Divorce filings, however, have generally been trending downward since the 1990s, which corresponds with the decreasing marriage rate, state data show.
Anne Harvey, an Oakwood divorce attorney, said her practice is handling more divorce cases each year, but the collapse of the real estate market has left some couples unable to sell their homes, leading many to continue living together even as their divorces move forward.
“It is not an unusual scenario these days, with the problems involved in selling houses,” Harvey said. “Typically, they would either be moving in with mom and dad or family members or getting a roommate, or they would get another place to live. Now, I am definitely seeing some people, by necessity, are continuing to live together during the divorce.”
A Huber Heights marital attorney said getting a divorce in this economy is not a “luxury,” but it is a financial calculation that many people decide is out of the question given their budgets. He said just the cost of filing for divorce with children in this area is $400, which does not include attorneys fees.
Marlene Moses, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, said the recession contributed to a decrease in divorce filings, but the numbers appear to be gradually improving as the “downturn in the economy becomes the new normal.”
Moses said she believes many unhappy couples are reassessing their financial situations and deciding their happiness is worth the cost of splitting up.
“Is it worth staying in the misery or relieving it and dealing with the financial consequences that are likely to occur and get on with their lives?” Moses said.
DeLong said moving out on her own was not easy, but separating was the right decision.
Still, she has a lot of adjusting to do.
“This has happened so fast that I’ve yet to work out a budget or game plan,” she said. “That will all come as the emotional aspect of this whirlwind winds down and the reality of the situation hits me.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-0749 or cfrolik @DaytonDailyNews.com.
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