Divorce House Calculator: Sell, Buy Out Your Spouse or Refinance

Authored by Carson Nordmann, Founder of Keystone Court Data. See our editorial standards.

In a divorce the house can go one of three ways: it is sold and the money split, one spouse keeps it and pays the other in cash, or one spouse keeps it and refinances the mortgage to pay the other. Type in your own figures and the calculator puts the three side by side: what each spouse ends up with, the price of the other spouse's share, the cash or the new loan it takes, and the monthly payment on that loan.

The house and your split

Example numbers are filled in. Replace each one with your own figure or estimate; every answer updates as you type. "You" is the spouse who would keep the house in a buyout or a refinance; "your spouse" is the other one.

What the house is worth

Its market value today, for example from an appraisal you both accept.

Mortgage and liens to pay off

The payoff amounts of every loan, home equity line and lien on the house. Type 0 if there are none.

Your share of the house's equity

Your spouse's share is the rest. How a house is split depends on your state's law and your agreement or court order; this box is your own number, not a rule. Read to 4 decimals.

Credit owed to you

Optional. Anything you and your spouse agree (or a court orders) comes back to you out of the house, for example a down payment from your own money.

Credit owed to your spouse

Optional. The same, for your spouse.

Selling, a cash buyout and a refinance

Selling costs in a sale

% of price

Commissions, closing costs and any transfer taxes on a sale, if the house is sold. Type 0 for none. Read to 4 decimals.

Getting it ready to sell

Optional. Repairs, cleaning or staging a sale would need.

Price your spouse's share from

Some couples take off the selling costs and the cost of getting the house ready that a sale would have needed, so the price matches what your spouse would have netted from a sale; others use the full value because no sale happens. Pick either to compare.

Other assets your spouse takes instead of cash

Optional. Your own value for anything else your spouse takes in place of part of the price, such as savings or a car. It lowers the cash or the loan the buyout needs, not the price.

Your closing costs for a cash buyout

Optional. Appraisal, deed, recording and title costs if you pay your spouse without a new loan.

Refinance interest rate

% a year

An example rate; type the rate a lender quotes you. Read to 4 decimals.

Refinance term

years

How long the new loan runs. Read to the nearest month.

Refinance and transfer closing costs

Optional. Lender fees, appraisal, title, deed and recording, added to the new loan here.

Your lender's top loan, as a % of value

Optional. Type the figure a lender gives you to compare the new loan with it. Leave 0 to skip the comparison. This calculator knows no lender's rules. Read to 4 decimals.

Price of your spouse's share-

Cash you need for a cash buyout-

New loan if you refinance to pay your spouse-

Monthly principal and interest on the new loan-

$10,000 more value, from this value, moves the price-

What each of you ends up with

Way out	You	Your spouse

This is arithmetic on the figures and estimates you type in, for general information only. It is not investment, financial, tax or legal advice. It does not know your state's law, your agreement, any court order, what a lender would approve, or your taxes, and every result is only as good as the numbers entered. Taxes are not included; ask a tax professional. Talk to an attorney licensed in the state where you live or where the house is, a lender and a tax professional before relying on it.

How each number is worked out

Reading the boxes: dollar boxes are read to the nearest whole dollar, percent boxes to 4 decimals and the term to the nearest month.
Equity: what the house is worth minus the mortgage and liens on it.
Sell on the market: the value minus selling costs, getting it ready and the debts, split by your share and your spouse's, with the credits moved from one side to the other.
Price of your spouse's share: their share (100% minus yours) of the equity at the full value or, if you pick it, of what a sale would net; then the credit owed to you is taken off and the credit owed to them is added.
Cash you need for a cash buyout: that price, less any other assets your spouse takes instead of cash, plus your closing costs. The mortgage and liens stay on the house.
New loan if you refinance: the payoff of the mortgage and liens, plus the cash part of the price (if your spouse would pay you, none), plus the refinance and transfer closing costs. As a percent of value: the new loan divided by the value. The most a loan could be at your lender's percent: the value times that percent, rounded down to the dollar.
Monthly principal and interest: loan × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)⁻ⁿ), where r is the yearly rate divided by 12 and n is the term in months; at 0% it is the loan divided by the months. It is worked in floating point and rounded to the nearest dollar; the other dollar figures are worked exactly and rounded half away from zero. A sale's net is rounded first, and each spouse's part of it, and a price figured from what a sale would net, is worked from that rounded net, so the parts add up to the figure shown; such a part can differ by $1 from the exact figure rounded once.
What each of you ends up with: in a sale, each spouse's part of what the sale leaves; in a cash buyout or a refinance, your spouse gets the price and you keep the house's equity less the price and that way's closing costs.
$10,000 more value: the price at the value you typed plus $10,000, less the price at the value you typed, each rounded to the dollar as shown. It is your spouse's share of the $10,000 (after selling costs when the price is figured from what a sale would net), give or take a dollar or two from the rounding.

What it leaves out

Income and capital gains taxes, any tax on the transfer between you (a sale's transfer taxes go in the selling costs you type), any change to the property tax, the mortgage payments, taxes, insurance and upkeep someone pays until the house is sold or refinanced, who lives in the house in the meantime, the time a sale takes, and anything else in the divorce such as retirement accounts, support or other debts, except the other assets you type in. It does not know your state's law, your agreement or a court order: how a house is split depends on your state's law and your agreement or court order, and the split and credit boxes are only your own numbers. It does not know whether a lender would refinance the loan in one spouse's name, at what rate, or whether it would release the other spouse. A spouse who signed a mortgage may stay liable on it after giving up the house unless the lender releases them or the loan is refinanced or paid off; ask the lender and an attorney. Taxes are not included; ask a tax professional.

General information only, not investment, financial, tax or legal advice. The calculator only does arithmetic on the numbers typed into it; it holds no data about any property, spouse, lender or market.