It is possible to buy a home while going through a divorce, but you won’t be able to rely on your joint income or credit scores.
“Another important consideration is the mortgage debt that limits a spouse's ability to secure a new loan or mortgage,” said Patrick Baranowsky, a divorce financial analyst at Baron Analytics. “A spouse can seek a court order that offers something called a contingent liability, and it says if there is a ‘court order assignment of debt’ like in a divorce case, the lender does not have to count that debt against that person when buying a new home.”