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"Peter and I bought our brand-new house eleven years ago in a beautiful, brand-new development. Our equity in the property went sky-high, nearly doubling the value of the house in just a half-dozen years. Then the business we were running hit the dirt when the economy did the same, and we ended up having to refinance at the top of the market in order to pay off the business loan. Then it got ugly.  Peter decided we were through, and shortly after, our next door neighbors decided to move quickly before their son started kindergarten. They priced their house to sell as fast as possible, and the housing market went bust right around the same time. Net result: our home is now appraising at nearly $40,000 less than what we refinanced for in 2008. We don&amp;#039;t qualify for a loan modification because as co-owners of the home, our joint income disqualifies us. They don&amp;#039;t really care much that we&amp;#039;re supporting two housholds with those incomes, either. When we start getting into the nitty-gritty of the divorce, it&amp;#039;s going to get really, really complicated, particularly since I don&amp;#039;t want my children moving out of this house, and he doesn&amp;#039;t want his credit rating tarnished. A foreclosure or short sale is out of the question. We&amp;#039;re going to have to co-own the property, at least until the market rebounds (oh please, let the market rebound...). It seems we&amp;#039;re not alone in our divorce dilemma. Lawyers all over the country are having to counsel divorcing spouses with negative equity situations. There&amp;#039;s no easy answer, and the extra legal and financial paperwork can really run up the lawyer bill, which only makes matters worse for two cash-strapped ex-spouses. I don&amp;#039;t imagine there&amp;#039;s going to be shortage of people like us for a good, long time, either. Did the bursting economic bubble affect your divorce proceedings? How did you handle the division of your property in a less-than ideal housing market? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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