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Divorced couples staying together because of poor economy

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-04 10:56

"Living as close as we do, it really makes it difficult to achieve closure," she said recently.

Despite the close quarters, the couple rarely cross paths. Linda Melville said they hadn't spoken to each other for a month before meeting about their divorce in late November. "The only conversation that takes place is via the lawyers," she said. "Even negotiating a day to do laundry."

When the morning paper arrives, whoever reads it first sets it out for the other. John Melville keeps up with the pool and lawn maintenance. Now that it gets dark earlier, his wife rarely even knows whether he has arrived home from work.

"We're respectful of each other," Linda said. "I don't go out of my way to violate his space. And I don't think he does."

Snyder and Partridge, the reluctant housemates in Denver, divorced last January. When the house failed to sell and Partridge ran out of money to pay for an apartment and her half of the mortgage, she moved back in with Snyder over the summer.

The childless couple brought their house, a two-story baby blue home with brick trim on a corner lot covered with cottonwoods, for just under $179,000 in 2001 and tried to sell it for just under $200,000. During the nine months it was on the market, two people looked at it "and laughed at the price," Snyder said.

The couple didn't want to lower the price and take a hit. The real estate agent eventually dropped them, and there is no longer a for-sale sign out front.

Partridge is not getting a lot of support from her girlfriends. "They say, `Oh no, let it go to foreclosure. Walk away. Don't do this,'" Partridge said. But "you have to take a breath and say they don't understand the full picture."

Snyder, who works in accounting, is catching grief from his family. "They say I could move on with life if she wasn't there," he said.

Neither one is dating again. "But I know it's going to be awkward when it comes up," Partridge said.

The two haven't really talked about how long they're going to stay in the same house.

"Not until we sell the house or until one of us wins the lottery and can buy the other one out, or until government gets their act together or the banks get their act together," Partridge said.

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