Two Ex-es Can Live as Cheaply as One

(Image from Freepik)

High housing costs have forced some divorcing couples to continue to live together:

Behind the uneasy arrangement is the housing market. Mortgage rates are over 7% and average home prices have hit record highs. This means more couples can’t afford to leave their home with its less than 3% mortgage interest rates and set up two different households.

Renting isn’t always an option either given that rents have risen more than 9% over the last two years.

Estranged couples stuck together are trying to create boundaries. Husband on the second floor. Wife on the first. They assign his and her cupboards in the kitchen, schedule laundry time and text whereabouts as needed. One woman locks her bedroom door and keeps her supply of batteries and toilet paper in her closet.

Many don’t tell colleagues about the set up because it seems unthinkable or they are embarrassed. They try to maintain civility for the kids and hold tight until they can afford to buy, rent and furnish two homes.

Couples used to remain together because of the social stigma of divorce.

Today the norm is to move out, "move on," and cut ties as quickly as possible.

If the couple still lives under the me roof, their acquaintances may correctly surmise that they don't have the funds to split up.

The new morality: failure in a marriage is no longer embarrassing, but it is shameful if one doesn't have the money to move out. The world has changed, not necessarily for the better.