The Financial Factors of Keeping a Home After Divorce

Going through divorce can easily cause you and many other Connecticut residents to suddenly question many aspects of your lives. These questions may not entirely remain speculative as you must often find answers to many inquiries posed during the marriage dissolution process. In many cases, a considerable amount of information and reflection may prove necessary before you can reach an answer.

One point of conflict that may plague you during the property division portion of the divorce process relates to whether you should fight for the family home. Each person may have his or her own views on the issue, but you may wish to consider the financial factors that could play into the choice made.

Financial factors

In many cases, a person’s initial reaction when it comes to the home is to keep it. However, this reaction may need some reconsideration. Before you put all of your efforts into fighting for the house, you may want to consider the following financial aspects:

  • Are you willing to give up other important assets in order to keep the home? Though you may want to keep your place of residence, giving up retirement accounts, savings or other valuables could harm you in the long run.
  • Can you reasonably afford the home? Many people think that because the mortgage payments have been made so far then they should not have a problem keeping up. However, if those payments were made based on the income of two people and now depend on your single income, it may prove more difficult to make payments.
  • Have you considered the tax implications? Hidden expenses can often come about after obtaining an asset in divorce, and taxes relating to capital gains and other home-related factors could prove costly.

Once you take these and other financial implications into consideration, you may feel more confident in your decision about whether to keep the home.

Fighting forward

If you do feel that keeping the home could work in your best interests, you may wonder how to go about achieving your goal. Property division proceedings can prove particularly difficult to work through during divorce, and if your soon-to-be ex also wants to keep the home, you may have some negotiations ahead of you. Gaining information on property division laws in Connecticut may help you determine the best approaches to your specific case and what strategies may help you feel most comfortable moving forward.