The Troubled Days Of Foreclosure Linked Suicides

September 3rd, 2008

Filed under: Foreclosure, House Foreclosures

A woman in Massachusetts could not bear the strain of foreclosure and took her own life. The troubled days of foreclosure linked suicides is opening up another angle of the crisis – the mental stress on society. Carlene Balderrama of Massachusetts had faxed to her lender that by the time they would foreclosure on her house she would be dead. It came to be true according Raymond O’Bera the police chief of Taunton.

According to reports, PHH Mortgage Corporation had been conducting foreclosure proceedings against the house occupied by Carlene. She took her life at a critical time when within few hours the house was going to be auctioned. Bidders had started to roll in. By that time she had fatally shot herself with her husband’s rifle.

Though this case has been closed it underlines the traumatic times the country is passing through. Locally the incident sent shock waves throughout the community consisting of about 60,000 residents who live here about 40 miles to the south of Boston. Many are talking as many are in the foreclosure net. Financial stress is beginning to show up in an ugly way in tragedy. With no end in sight psychologists opine that cases like this are beginning to become quite common.

Dr. Charles Nemeroff chairperson of psychiatry at Emory University, Atlanta said that stress is a big factor in triggering off suicidal tendencies. Today stress is related to the foreclosure crisis. Dr. Nemeroff is the president of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Dr. Harold Koenig of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, said, “Suicide is certainly a response to hard economic times.” He citied the instance of the 1929 stock crisis, that was followed by a spate of suicides. Nadine Kaslow of Grady Memorial hospital Atlanta and of Emory University, said that this type of financial pressure is often connected with important psychological problems. There is no doubt that the foreclosure crisis is responsible for this. Dr. Bruce Cohen of Harvard Medical School aptly comments that the loss of a home equates to the loss of a loved one or loss of a job.

Meanwhile according to RealtyTrac foreclosures shot up by 121% during the second quarter this year in comparison to the second quarter of 2007. It calculates to 739,000 houses being foreclosed upon which tantamounts to a foreclosure rate of 1:171 houses. Houses are occupied by families – human beings that laugh or cry. In Massachusetts the count is 16,173 foreclosures being affected like the Balderramas.