Culture
Living Near Foreclosed Property Is Linked to Elevated Blood Pressure
Researchers say lender-owned foreclosures could be causing neighbors too much stress.
That foreclosed house down the block might not be just a depressing reminder of the mortgage crisis. The fact that you live near it might also be elevating your risk of high blood pressure, according to new research.
Scientists at Harvard and elsewhere claim they've discovered the "first evidence" that proximity to foreclosed properties correlates with elevated systolic blood pressure, aka that number at the top of the BP reading. They say this after spending two decades tracking the health of 1,740 people living in Framingham, Massachusetts. These people are part of the so-called Framingham Heart Study that dates back generations to the 1940s, and can be described as mostly white, middle-class suburbanites.