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Florida Law - The Home The home is a special asset, because it tends to be a significant asset in dollar terms, and because, for the children especially, if they do not live there, it can drastically change their everyday lives. This is often also true of the wife. So there are two sets of issues: occupancy and ownership. For occupancy , the courts tend to try to keep the custodial parent and children living in the house. For ownership , the courts divide the value between separate property bought before the marriage, and a marital portion that built up because of mortgage contributions by the parties during the marriage. Here is an example taken from one actual case. The husband paid $26,021 as down payment and principal before the marriage toward the $208,740 purchase price. The husband's separate interest was thus 12%. The husband had a half interest in the remaining 88%, or 44%. Thus the husband's total interest was 44% + 12%, or 56%. The home was worth $240,000, and so the husband's interest was 56% of $240,000, or $134,400. The remaining mortgage debt was $113,000. Thus the total equity in the home was $240,000 - $113,000, or $127,000. Because the mortgage had been taken out jointly, this debt was divided 50/50 (different than the 56/44 division of the market value), giving the husband $56,500 of debt. As a result, the husband's equity in the home (market value less debt) was $134,400 - $56,500, or $77,900. The wife's equity was the rest of the equity after subtracting the husband's share, $127,000 - $77,900 or $49,100. Cases: Griffiths (1990) 563 So2d 773 (home example described above).
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