The recession has affected many Florida residents, especially those who are homeowners. Because the economic downturn impacted the real estate market in a big way, couples who plan to get a divorce find themselves in a difficult situation when they negotiate asset division. Whether or not to keep the house becomes a difficult question to answer.

With the dip in the economy, most Florida homes are worth less than they were before the recession hit. Because of this, many of these couples have little equity in their houses—often negative equity. It is frequently not a good financial decision for one of the parties to keep the house. If the choice is a retirement plan or the house, for example, the better choice would be to keep the retirement plan.

In addition, if one of the parties does decide to keep the family home, that party may not be able to afford refinancing the home. They may find themselves trying to refinance with only half of the financial resources that they had when they first bought the house. The party that decides to leave the house, then, would want to no longer be liable for any part of the home.

Yet, it can be possible for one of the parties to retain the house. Creativity in crafting a fair divorce settlement can help one of the parties to hold on to their home. For example, the person who wants to stay in the house could make all of the payments on the house until their financial situation gets better, or until the real estate market improves. Crafting an equitable asset division for their divorce settlement is essential for both parties, especially if one of them wants to keep their family home.

Source: Huffington Post, "Keeping The House After Divorce," Kathleen B. Connell, Feb. 20, 2013