Texas divorce mortgages · Cornerstone First Mortgage · NMLS #173855 Call Mike Certo · (480) 296-6513 · mcerto@cfmtg.com
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Every Rule Here Is Quoted and Dated, Including the One We Nearly Got Wrong

Program and regulatory figures verified October 10, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.

By Mike Certo, Cornerstone First Mortgage · NMLS #260555 ·

The sourcing rules are the product here. This state tried to mislead us twice, and both attempts are documented below.

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Who you reach

Mike Certo, NMLS #260555, with Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. Direct: (480) 296-6513 · mcerto@cfmtg.com.

★★ We are a lender. We are not a law firm, we do not represent any party to a dissolution, we make no attorney referrals, we take no position on how property should be divided, and we do not advise on how an owelty of partition should be created, documented or closed.

★ Where every rule comes from

ClaimSourceVerified
★★★ The owelty at § 50(a)(3); the § 50(a)(6) 80% and 2% caps; subsection (K)Tex. Const. art. XVI § 50 — "Current as of January 01, 2026"2026-10-10
★★★ "just and right" divisionTex. Fam. Code § 7.001, same date2026-10-10
Community property; the presumption; clear and convincing evidenceTex. Fam. Code § 3.002, Tex. Fam. Code § 3.0032026-10-10
★★ $140,000 exemption; the $300,000 → $160,000 example; local option and county figuresTexas Comptroller of Public Accounts2026-10-10
★★ Buyout as a limited cash-out; the 12-month and written-agreement conditionsFannie Mae Selling Guide B2-1.3-022026-10-10
"No waiting period" when legally awardedSelling Guide B2-1.3-032026-10-10
Support as income; the three-year continuance; lump sums excludedSelling Guide B3-3.4-022026-10-10
$832,750 across 254 countiesFHFA conforming-loan-limit data county file, parsed2026-10-10
67 metros; all four majors downZillow ZHVI metro file, Aug 2026, parsed2026-10-10

★★★ The two source traps in this state, documented

Texas was the hardest state in this network to source, and neither problem looked like a problem.

★★★ One: the state's own statute site serves no statutes. statutes.capitol.texas.gov is now a JavaScript application. We fetched four different statute URLs and every one returned the identical response: the same byte count, the same page, and zero statute text, at HTTP 200. The identical sizes were the only tell. A tool that checks status codes would call that a success.

★★★ Two: the obvious mirror was seventeen months out of date. Readable, authoritative-looking, and stale. A well-known legal mirror gave the homestead exemption as $100,000. Its own footer said the page was "accessed May 26, 2025". Texas voters raised it to $140,000 in November 2025. Publishing that figure would have put a wrong number on a money page.

★★ So we dropped that mirror for Texas entirely and used a source that dates itself, "Current as of January 01, 2026", plus the Comptroller for every tax figure. ★ One honest quirk to disclose: that source, FindLaw's codes library, returns 403 to an ordinary browser while serving crawlers normally, which is the inverse of the usual block. You may not be able to open it from a browser even though it is a real and current source.

★ The general lesson, which applies to anything you read about your own case: a mirror's freshness is per page, and for any figure a legislature might move, check the agency that administers it.

★★ What we deliberately did not publish

  1. ★★ No rates, no APRs, no payment figures, anywhere.
  2. ★★★ No owelty structuring guidance. Not how to create one, document it, perfect it or close it, and not in what order. In Texas homestead protection is constitutional and a defective lien is a serious problem, not a formality.
  3. ★★★ No legal advice and no division outcome. We quote the statutes; we do not say what is just and right in your case.
  4. ★★ No assertion about how courts apply "just and right": that is case law, which we did not read.
  5. ★ No Texas county or district tax rates, and no dollar tax saving.
  6. ★★ No claim about divorce and homestead-exemption or appraisal-cap status. Ask your county appraisal district.
  7. ★ Nothing sourced from the stale mirror described above.
  8. ★★ No forecast of Texas prices. The market page describes the twelve months to August 2026.
  9. ★★ No attorney referrals and no attorney directory, including on the page written for attorneys.

★ A caveat about agency rules

Everything quoted from the Selling Guide was read on 2026-10-10. Fannie Mae updates it regularly and individual lenders apply overlays on top. Treat these as the agency baseline on a dated day, and confirm against your own file.

Related sites

We publish state-specific divorce-mortgage guides because property-division law, homestead rules and loan limits differ by state. California Divorce Mortgage covers a community-property state that does require an equal division; Arizona Divorce Mortgage covers another.

Compliance

This is not a commitment to lend. Loans are subject to buyer and property qualification. Equal Housing Lender. Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. Mike Certo, NMLS #260555.

Corporate: Cornerstone First Mortgage, Inc., 2650 Camino del Rio N, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92108.

Frequently asked questions

Who runs Texas Divorce Mortgage?

Mike Certo, NMLS #260555, with Cornerstone First Mortgage, NMLS #173855. We are a lender. We are not a law firm, do not represent any party to a dissolution, make no attorney referrals, take no position on how property should be divided, and do not advise on how an owelty of partition should be structured.

Where do the Texas rules on this site come from?

The Constitution and Family Code are quoted from a source dated Current as of January 01, 2026, the tax figures from the Texas Comptroller, the agency rules from the Fannie Mae Selling Guide read on 10 October 2026, loan limits from the parsed FHFA 2026 county file and market values from the Zillow metro file for August 2026.

Why doesn't this site cite the Texas legislature's own website?

Because statutes.capitol.texas.gov now serves a JavaScript application rather than statute text. Four different statute URLs returned an identical response with no statutory content at HTTP 200, so it cannot be used as a verifiable citation even though it works for a person in a browser. Because its Texas pages were seventeen months out of date. It gave the homestead exemption as $100,000, with a footer recording that the page was accessed on 26 May 2025, while Texas voters raised the exemption to $140,000 in November 2025. We confirmed the current figure at the Comptroller and dropped the mirror for this state.

Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about mortgage financing during and after a divorce. Not a loan commitment, and not legal, tax or financial advice. Cornerstone First Mortgage is a lender; it is not a law firm, does not represent any party to a dissolution, does not make attorney referrals, takes no position on how property should be divided, and does not advise on how an owelty of partition should be documented or closed. Texas homestead and property-division rules are set by the Texas Constitution and the Family Code and applied by the courts; homestead tax exemptions are administered by county appraisal districts. Agency requirements described here are Fannie Mae Selling Guide provisions current as of the date shown and are subject to change and to lender overlays. Housing market figures describe the twelve months to August 2026 and are not a forecast. All loans are subject to borrower, property and program qualification.