Can you truly afford to keep the house?

The desire to keep the home is rarely about the building. It is stability for children, continuity in a season where everything else is changing, and not adding a move to the hardest year of your life. Those are real considerations — which is exactly why the affordability question deserves an equally real answer, not an optimistic one.

The true monthly cost

• Mortgage payment — at the refinanced amount, if a refinance or buyout is part of the plan, not the current payment.
• Property taxes — which may change after the divorce or a later purchase.
• Homeowners insurance, updated to the new ownership.
• Utilities for the whole house, now on one income.
• Maintenance — a common planning figure is on the order of 1% of home value per year, more for older homes. This is the line most budgets quietly delete.
• Reserves — the furnace does not care that you just finalized a divorce.

Support payments cut both ways

Support received may help qualify for a refinance where it is court-ordered with a reliable history and duration — and it may also end, step down, or be modified. Support paid out counts against you. Building the budget on the durable version of your income, rather than the best month, is what keeps the plan honest.

The question behind the question

Sometimes the analysis shows the house works. Often it shows the house works if — if the refinance closes, if support continues, if nothing breaks. It may be worth asking what stability actually requires: this house, or a sustainable home you are not anxious about every month. Both answers are legitimate. The math just deserves to be done before the settlement locks the choice in.