Sometimes, it takes more than just love to keep a marriage going. Now, the housing market is here to help sustain those rocky relationships, teetering on the edge of divorce.

Today, homeowning couples don't need to argue over who gets the Britney Spears CDs. There are now much bigger issues to resolve; how will they pay the realtor commissions and the negative equity debt.

Here is a story from the Washington Post, hightlighting the financial difficulties of home owners who want to break those marital vowes.

Jeffrey Taylor and his wife bought their dream home in Purcellville for $538,000 last August. Now they have to sell it because they are getting divorced and neither one can afford the mortgage alone.

The most they could get for it was $430,000. After paying all the real estate commissions and taxes, they will still owe the bank $118,000. A nontraditional mortgage and a prepayment penalty mean Kimberly Pexton and her husband will owe $28,000 at closing. Five months later, I lose $100,000," Taylor, a high school teacher, said. "I don't think I can take $100,000 into the stock market and lose it faster."

Such a scenario, known as a short sale, was unthinkable during the real estate boom of recent years. In the course of five months, a person could buy and sell a property and walk away with tens of thousands of dollars. Now, instead of receiving large checks at the settlement table, many sellers are writing them.