Legal Question in Family Law in New Mexico

Re: Home Equity of community property state

Probably the best answer to the question about which half of the house she is entitled is to direct you to go and watch the old movie "War of the Roses" with Michael Douglas.

Seriously, this is an age old question to which there is no clear answer. However, the general rule of thumb is that if you two co-mingled your money during the marriage she will be entitled to one half of the increase in value of the home but less a percentage of what the costs associated with the sale of the house might be. Thus, you can see that (a) if you did not co-mingle your money she may not be entitled to any portion of your property. (b) If you did co-mingle then she 'may' be entitled to a 1/2 portion of the change in value but (c) subtracting some of the costs (1/2 share) that will be incurred eventually (if or) when you sell the house. Those costs are speculative but there are plenty of folks who can give you pretty good ball park figure. The point here is that if you buy out her portion of her interest in the house so that you keep the house then she also must reimburse you for selling costs associated with her 1/2 interest. Thus, when you buy her out you get to reduce the buy out amount by an additional (and somewhat unknown) amount. This is where you hear about the 'negotiating' part of a divorce.

As you can see, by just discussing a portion of the consideration (and not going into detail about the specifics of your actual circumstances) this is a somewhat complicated area of the law. An attorney can look at your specific circumstances and give you a much better idea of what you may actually encounter if you and your wife are getting to a point where you are trying to figure out what is hers and what is yours.

Please see other anwers I have provided to this bulletin board to see about how to go about finding an attorney in your town or area.

Good Luck.