A marital home is the most valuable asset that most married couples own. When the couple divorces, they have to determine what to do with the home. This can be a problematic issue because of the desire of both parties to keep the home.
Here are some points to consider when you are trying to decide what to do about the house:
- Keeping the home might be costlier than you realize. Remember that you have only one income now, so payments that were easy before might not be now. On top of the mortgage, you also have insurance, taxes and upkeep costs.
- Selling the home might mean that you are responsible for a capital gains tax. This is only going to apply to some homeowners, so find out if it applies to your case before you make any decisions about whether or not to sell the house.
- You can use other assets to balance the property division agreement. Since the home usually has a higher value than other assets, the person with the house might end up with a larger share of the debts to balance out the fact that the other person doesn’t have as many assets.
- Think about the children when you are deciding what to do with the marital home. In some cases, the custodial parent will keep the home and continue to rear the kids there. There can also be an agreement about what will happen to the home after the children move out.
The decision to part with the marital home is often difficult. Be sure that you are thinking practically about what you can do. If you realize that the home will be more of a stressor than a benefit, you might need to let it go.