Home » Banking and Financial Articles » The Marital Home: Asset or Liability in a Divorce?
The Marital Home: Asset or Liability in a Divorce?
In today's volatile housing market, many divorcing couples are seeing their home not as an asset, but as a liability.
December 06, 2011 /Banking and Financial PR News/ -- In the past, getting to keep the marital home was considered a victory in a divorce settlement. The home was traditionally the single biggest marital asset, so being awarded "custody" of it was a big deal. In today's volatile housing market, many divorcing couples are seeing their home not as an asset, but as a liability.
Legal experts report that spouses are no longer fighting to keep the home, but are instead fighting to keep from being saddled with it, opting instead to take their part of the property settlement in more liquid assets like stock accounts, bonds or IRAs.
There is a even a new avenue of expertise available to combat this issue -- some real estate agents and brokers are certified as "divorce real estate specialists" with unique skills to handle transactions and find the best possible solution for everyone involved.
Falling Values = Rising Costs of Ownership
With nearly 25 percent of America's mortgaged homes now "underwater" (where the homeowner now owes more on the mortgage than the home's current value), the marital home is quickly becoming one of the least attractive pieces of marital property for many divorcing couples. This is particularly true if the couple -- like countless others -- bought more home than they could realistically afford; if the owners were struggling to maintain the home together, dividing the household's income in half only turns a difficult task into an impossible one.
Potential Pitfalls of an Undervalued Property
Clearly being awarded the home in a divorce property settlement is not the boon it once was. The effects can be more far-reaching than either party originally thought, though. If the spouse who stays in the home chooses to sell it prior to the divorce being finalized, the other spouse has the right to provide input into the sale price, the intended use for the property (such as a developer wanting to buy a large home and remodel it into individual apartments) and other aspects that might prevent a quick sale. A particularly vindictive spouse could essentially trap an unwitting party in a home that is worth much less than its purchase price just by making unrealistic demands about which realtor must handle the sale or artificially inflating the price outside what the current housing market would support.
Now, more than ever, it is important to work with a skilled divorce attorney who has in-depth knowledge of the nuances of property division in a stalled housing market.
Article provided by The Law Offices of Wendy Raquel Hernandez, P.C.
Visit us at www.hernandezfirm.com
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