Housing Market Divorce Twist: Neither One Wants The House

When Marci Needle and her husband began to contemplate divorce in June, they thought they had enough money to go their separate ways. They owned a million-dollar home near Atlanta and another in Jacksonville, Fla., as well as investment properties.

Now the market for both houses has crashed, and the couple are left arguing about whether the homes are worth what they owe on them, and whether there are any assets left to divide, Ms. Needle said.

"We're really trying very hard to be amicable, but it puts a strain on us," said Ms. Needle, the friction audible in her voice. "I want him to buy me out. It's in everybody's interest to settle quickly. That would be my only income. It's been incredibly stressful."

Chalk up another victim for the crashing real estate market: the easy divorce.

With nearly one in six homes worth less than the mortgage owed on it, according to Moody's Economy.com, divorce lawyers and financial advisers around the country say the logistics of divorce have been turned around. "We used to fight about who gets to keep the house," said Gary Nickelson, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. "Now we fight about who gets stuck with the dead cow."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[JWnFL]

Marci Needle has a history of needing more than one man in her life...

I wonder what the final tally will be this time.. I am a betting man so I will say five (5) boyfriends.... While married..... as the number has increased everytime her husband has taken her back from the last go round with her latest and greatest "Bo"...

So Marci what was the count this time? How many men did you maintain a relationship with while married?

Are you going to explain to the kids that you just could not keep your panties on?...

Hey Marci how about some pictures for the rest of us..

I notice in the New York Times you did not spend a lot of time talking about your boyfriends..

I wonder if your Esq. even knows..

[Erdgeist]

Let me guess, this couple never considered the long standing formula that when buying a home it CANNOT EXCEED "income x 3". For example, if you make 30,000 a year -- you can afford to buy a 90,000 dollar home -- but no more unless of course you are a fool.

[JWnFL]

Commercial Real Estate has taken a bad turn even with credit worthy tenents... I am sure as a 3rd generation family in Real Estate they were well aware of the risks of any form of leverage...

Marci's father sold his banks years ago... but I am sure with his knowledge of the financial system if any wrong turns were made they would have been rectified quickly...

So your assumptions were in-correct.

[solarian]

boo hoo my heart is breaking not

[RButler]

I love it. Low income people who took out sub-prime mortgages on homes they couldn't afford are being told that they weren't being smart for not reading and understanding their loan documents and that they are responsible for their actions. But, these 2 and the folks that lost millions in the Madoff scheme, we're supposed to feel sympathy for their huge loses. Well, They were supposedly the 'smart' ones, weren't they? Too bad.

While I'm at it, I hope real estate agents are taking a big hit now. They were probably telling buyers during the boom to 'buy now cause the prices will keep going up' thereby contributing to the mess.

[BlueKansas]

I'm with you. I rank real estate agents below DUI attorneys and that Sham-Wow guy.

[USAneedsU]

Well, as a former real estate agent, I would just like to comment. Yes, I have taken a huge blow and within 2 and a half months, its possible that my family may be homeless. I am not an investor, just a person who wanted to make good money and feed my family. Why don't you and your self-righteous "blogger" buddies take a moment and try not to wish others ill. Not all real estate agents made people buy homes or tell lenders to give predatory loans or make changes to lending laws. Unfortunately, I loved my job. Helping people find their HOME, not their investment property, was a fulfilling career. I helped alot of people. Alot of people are hurting. You may not feel sorry for the folks in the article(LORD knows I don't),but stereotyping .... its just uncalled for.

[leftLibertarian]

My tiny violin is playing

[DeniseD]

ROFL!!

[jsarets]

So much for relying on your home as a source of income... The upper middle-class is going to be out trolling for real jobs in a real economy that has atrophied substantially under the auto-cannibalization of the financial sector.

There's no such thing as an ownership society. At the end of the day, all assets are backed by earned income. When the masses start living on equity instead of salary, the equity markets cannot hold. What we need is an "earnership" society.

The past three hundred years of financial history is a story of repeated attempts to use asset value as the basis for the allocation of capital, only to find time and time again that the only thing that actually secures an investment is productive income.

The value of an investment is not a function of the value of the underlying asset but rather a function of the rate at which value is produced and consumed by its owner. It's not about value, it's about the rate of value. It's not about the money supply, it's about how fast the money changes hands.

This must be terribly difficult for financial geniuses to wrap their egg-shaped heads around.

[brooklyncitizen]

say what?!??!? ....I'm no financial genius and i had trouble wrapping my oval head around it..lol

[markinaz]

And yet they probably will still fight over who gets the dog. People are stupid.

[Irtnog]

If you didn't see this story in print, the picture of Marci Needle is straight out of "Real Housewives of Atlanta." Aparently she and her husband, who are in their 40's tops, by the looks of her, "own a million dollar home near Atlanta and another in Jacksonville, Fla., as well as investment properties. " How?

Can you spell GREEDY? These two are the kind of people who generated this housing bubble in the first place. Their sense of entitlement is awe inspiring; especially hers.

I have no sympathy for people like this and neither should anyone else.

THEY DID IT TO THEMSELVES. to them and all those llike them I say: "Live with the consequences of your greed and stupidity."

[Topfeeder]

I get where you are coming from. But, when does the American dream become greed? At which point do we stop accumulating and just be grateful for what we have? Everyone I know seems to think they just need a little bit more.

[MNmommy]

Honest to pete, I don't say things like this often - but she looks like a tranny.

[brooklyncitizen]

it isn't greedy to want to be affluent. greed is doing it at the expense of anyone and anything such as Madoff...working hard for your assets and to create investments is not greedy.

[Irtnog]

Brooklyn, the definition of greed is: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed (Websters)

Call it what you will...nobody needs multiple houses and investment properties particularly when they are SPECULATING.

I repeat, these people are getting what they deserve. If they hadn't been greedy they would not find themselves in this predicament.

[1201SLD]

And it's a double/triple whammy in much of Florida, where the basic mortgage payment is only the beginning; property taxes are 2.5% of market value (no laughter or tears, please) and required very-hard-to-get hazard, flood, and windstorm insurance can be another 2%. Even in good times, property taxes and insurance inhibit business development down here, and the Save-Our-Homes tax law is a time bomb.

[Giada]

Welcome to the brave new world of Alice in Wonderland .... surreal.

[sonoffestus]

I get it now. This was all part of the republican family values plan. Destroy the economy so families would stay together. Yeah, it's all making sense now.

[kellygrrrl]

Brilliant!

and also, too, get birth control out of the pharmacies and schools and create millions of more "happy loving young families"

[JoeBlough]

Maybe just more taxpayers.

[smallfish]

"I want him to buy me out. It's in everybody's interest to settle quickly. That would be my only income. It's been incredibly stressful."

............that's priceless. self entitlement and ignorance all wrapped up into a days gone by sweetheart.

[FemiMommy]

You don't know... maybe she's been a stay-at-home wife/mom for the past 20 years and is trying to get back into the workforce... not an easy task. How about we start 2009 and the new era by giving people the benefit of the doubt?

[drymartini1]

"stay-at-home wife/mom for the past 20 years"---> a loser by any other name is still a loser. why should anyone buy anyone out to their own detriment.

[smallfish]

typical stay at home moms and non-working moms who live in million dollar homes with many investment properties are not the same thing.

[thepoliticalcat]

She doesn't look old enough to have married and stayed home for 20 years. She can't be much older than mid-30s, and if they could afford to buy two million-dollar properties on one person's salary, then, I'm sorry, my giant well of sympathy just dried up.

[DXM]

I agree - that's priceless!!! How about they sell the house and she cough up her share to cover the difference owed on the mortgage principle. Since neither one of us could afford the house we owned at the time of our divorce (nor did we want it), that's what my ex-wife and I ended up doing 16 years ago after the last collapse of the housing market. It wasn't easy (we lost 30% on the house from its original purchase price with only 5% down so we owed several tens of thousands) but I lived frugally to pay off that and other debts over 4 years and after a couple of years more saved enough for a down payment on a condo I could afford on my own. That's life, honey! Live and learn - you are not always going to be able to walk away from your responsibilities.

[DeniseD]

Your story sounds so familiar. Same with my first husband and me, only our house was foreclosed on because we were upside down in our mortgage and neither of us could afford to pay it off. It was a nightmare. So glad to be in a different place in my life now.

[rabiddog6708]

Too funny. Shows you how far the real estate market has fallen that this would become an issue.