Divorce is rarely an easy process. But falling home values and sluggish real estate sales are combining to make it particularly difficult right now.- advertisement -
Couples aren’t fighting over who gets to keep the house. They’re scrambling to get away from the burden of it. It’s too soon to see the trend reflected in official statistics; the most recent marriage and divorce numbers compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics date back to 2005 — just when real estate markets started to turn down from their boom years. But lawyers and financial planners anecdotally say they are seeing more clients stay married — if only for the time being — simply because they cannot afford to break up.