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Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Law - "'You take the house!' 'No, You take the house.' 'I don't want it, you take it.'"
Monica Hatcher's story in the Nov. 15th Miami Herald is headed "When couples split, the home is a hot potato: In this period of a declining housing market and negative equity, there's a different kind of divorce battle for custody of the house -- neither spouse wants it." It begins:
During the real-estate boom, couples who divorced would fight over who got the house, betting that the winner could get rich from rapidly escalating prices. Spouses plunked down thousands to buy out their partner. Disposing of the ''marital asset'' was easy, since homes were selling in a day or two for inflated prices.Now, in a twist on the classic divorce dispute, houses have become hot potatoes for couples divorcing during the downturn.
'It's like, `You take the house!' 'No, You take the house.' 'I don't want it, you take it,' '' said Drew Sheridan, a veteran divorce lawyer in Kendall.
Falling property values have turned many homeowners upside down on their mortgages, meaning they owe more than their homes are worth. Negative home equity has made it much harder for divorcing couples to disentangle their finances.
In some cases, they are abandoning their property to foreclosure because neither can afford the loan payments and they can't sell the house for what they paid for it.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 19, 2008 01:04 PM
Posted to General Law Related