If you’re divorcing, you’ve no doubt been asked “Will you get to keep the house?” It seems that in many divorces, the marital home can begin to feel like kind of a prize, something to fight for. It’s almost as though there is an unspoken notion that the spouse who moves out appears in some ways to have “lost.”

Granted, the marital residence carries significant symbolic and cultural weight. After all, “Home is where the heart is” –or so we’re told. In addition, for many couples, the marital home is their largest single asset. But does that mean the person who gets the house “wins?” Is there any financial truth to that idea?