A column titled, Is mortgage crisis causing divorces? issued by Divorce360.com is rapidly being syndicated all over the Internet.  We first came across it on MSN.com and, in trying to locate an original blog post cited in the story, came across numerous republications of the piece — but never did find that original post.

The gist of the article is the assertion that the stress caused by mortgage foreclosure is leading to an increase in divorce, according to one Florida Realtor.  This Realtor reportedly wrote a blog post on the topic earlier this year and his point of view was confirmed by "50 or 60" other Realtors who commented on the post.

As litigators who handle a number of divorces and also currently represent clients in mortgage foreclosure litigation involving more than $50 million in property values, we can't say we've seen this so-called trend.  In fact, since the marital home typically is the most valuable asset a couple shares, our anecdotal finding is that couples are trying to work it out, or at least stall the divorce process, until property values stabilize.

The article does mention that there are no formal studies on the relationship between foreclosure and divorce.  However it seems somewhat ridiculous that so many media are syndicating an article based on the anecdotal findings and comments of 50 or 60 Realtors, a notably small percentage when you consider that the National Association of Realtors claims more than 1.3 million members.

Perhaps if the clients of these 50 or 60 Realtors are telling them that foreclosure led to their divorces, they are avoiding sharing more truthful, personal information about what triggered the dissolution.  Or perhaps the foreclosures were the trigger, but there were much deeper issues.  Even if mortgage foreclosure was a primary factor in these particular couples' decisions to end their marriages, with more than a million divorces per year, this so-called correlation hardly seems newsworthy.

What do you think?  We're doing our own, obviously unscientific, poll on whether there is a correlation between mortgage foreclosure and divorce.  There are two ways to participate:

1. Add your comment to this post and let us know what you think.
2. Use the article voting buttons below
1. Choose "Liked" if you think there IS NOT a major, newsworthy trend linking foreclosure and divorce.
2. Choose "Disliked" if you think there IS a major trend.

If we get enough feedback — say 50 or 60 responses — we'll post a follow-up with the results.

Finally, a more realistic view of any divorce-foreclosure correlation might be found in this article, Breaking up is harder to do, posted on a San Francisco Chronicle site.