Homeowners upside down on their mortgages are finding themselves unable to take advantage of professional opportunities elsewhere, move up to nicer neighborhoods, or get their children into better school districts. Mobility in this country, the study found, has decreased in the wake of the foreclosure boom–a surprise to many who assumed that those displaced by foreclosure would be free to move, increasing the overall mobility in America. That Wharton School study, Housing Busts and Household Mobility, found that households who would expect to be upwardly mobile have been stuck fast by the inability to retire their mortgage by selling their homes.

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