In California, the family house in a divorce usually gets sorted into one of two buckets: community property or separate property. Community property is what you built up during the marriage, and the rule here is that it gets divided equally. Separate property is what one spouse brought into the marriage or received as a gift or inheritance, and that generally stays with that spouse. The tricky part is that a house can be a mix of both, especially if you bought it before the marriage and then used joint money to pay the mortgage or make improvements. When that happens, the community may have a share in the equity even though the deed is in one name, and figuring out that share can get complicated. That is one of those situations where you really want a lawyer or a CPA who knows California family law to run the numbers.
The date of separation matters more than people expect. In California, that date is generally when you and your spouse stopped living together as a married couple, and it can affect how the house and the mortgage payments are treated going forward. Payments made after separation can be handled differently than payments made during the marriage. There is no single formula that fits every case, so the specifics of your situation will drive the answer. Keep good records of when things happened and who paid what.
The deed and the mortgage are two different things, and people mix them up all the time. The deed says who owns the property. The mortgage says who owes the money. You can be on the deed and not on the mortgage, or the other way around. If one spouse is going to keep the house, the lender usually has to agree to remove the other spouse from the loan, and that means qualifying on your own. A HUD-approved housing counselor can help you understand your options, and your lender or a lawyer can explain what refinancing or assuming the loan would involve. Do not assume that signing a deed over to one spouse gets the other spouse off the mortgage, because it usually does not.
If you are thinking about selling while the divorce is pending, or one of you wants to stay and buy the other out, get clear on the numbers first. Sacramento County records can tell you how title is held, and the county recorder’s office is where deeds get recorded. Whether a sale during the divorce is a good idea depends on your situation, the equity, and what you and your spouse can agree on. Talk to a lawyer before you sign anything, and talk to a CPA about the tax side, because the tax treatment of a sale can vary. Take it one step at a time, keep your paperwork together, and ask questions before you commit to anything.
More notes on this topic are at California community property and the house.