After a Divorce, Who Keeps the House?

After a divorce, who keeps the house?

In Danielle Staub's case, she is. The Real Housewives of New Jersey vet has finalized her divorce from Marty Caffrey (and may or may not be engaged again), and will reportedly purchase the six-bedroom colonial home in Englewood, New Jersey that the two briefly shared (and fought over). According to TMZ, she will buy him out on the $2 million dollar home (and keep the wedding presents).

Which brings us to a recent survey of 500 divorced people from ages 22 to 77, who gave a glimpse into who tends to keeps the marital home and how they pick up the pieces after splitting.

Almost half of those who felt their ex-partner was mainly at fault for their divorce ended up staying in the family home. Selling the home was the ideal outcome for people who blamed themselves for the divorce. When putting the home on the market, couples who considered their divorce to be civil were more likely to make a profit on the sale of their home. 33 percent made a profit compared to the 24 percent who said their divorce was less than amicable.

After moving out of the family home, the majority of people decided to downsize when finding a new place. 53 percent went with a smaller place, while 29 percent chose a house about the same size as before, and only 18 percent moved somewhere larger.

66 percent of those who downsized after their divorce said a contributing cause of their breakup was infidelity. Other popular reasons for downsizing included a lack of individual identity (57 percent), a lack of intimacy (56 percent), and falling out of love (55 percent).

When faced with a fresh start post-divorce, more people decided to stay in the same city instead of moving away. 27 percent said they remained in the same city because they had well-established roots. Others said they didn't want to move too far away because they wanted to stay near their job (23 percent), family (19 percent), or kids (18 percent). Of the 20 percent who moved to a different city or state after a divorce, 30 percent wanted to be near their family.

The survey showed that a lack of communication was the main reason for divorce, with 61 percent of men and 53 percent of women citing this as the reason for their breakup. Constant arguing and being cheated on were two other top reasons, whereas cheating on a spouse and a lack of individual identity were two of the least cited reasons for splitting. A lack of intimacy and money were much bigger deals to men, whereas women cited a cheating spouse and differing values much more frequently than men.

Based on gender, men were more likely to share the blame, whereas women were more likely to blame their spouse for the divorce.