Dave Ramsey, a best-selling author and host of “The Ramsey Show,” is known for having a blunt approach to giving financial advice. He didn’t mince words in his message to homebuyers in a Nov. 5 post on X: “Never buy a house with someone you’re not married to.”
Fewer Americans have been getting married over the years. The marriage rate fell by around 23% from 2000 to 2024, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.
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But just because some people are turning their backs on one part of the American Dream doesn’t mean they’re giving up on another. Unmarried couples made up 11% of U.S. homebuyers in both 2025 and 2026, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Still, Ramsey isn’t convinced that unmarried couples buying a home together is a good idea.
“I haven’t run into a situation where it works out well,” he posted.
Dave Ramsey explains the risks of buying a house unmarried
Dave Ramsey is openly an evangelical Christian and known to have more conservative views. Still, his advice seems to be less about disapproving of unmarried couples living together or taking an untraditional path and more about the legal complications of their decision.
“Legally, you’re forming a general partnership,” he wrote about couples who buy a house together. “If the other person walks away, you’re stuck with the whole mortgage, and you can’t sell the house without their permission because they own it too.”
Dividing assets after a relationship ends is rarely easy, regardless of whether you’re ending a long-term relationship or getting divorced. But for unmarried couples, the process can be even more complicated.
“Married couples have an automatic legal structure for divorce, disability and death,” Ramsey wrote. “Unmarried couples have a mess.”
Dave Ramsey warns unmarried couples against buying a house together because of the legal repercussions if they break up.Jackson Laizure / Getty Images
Buying a house as an unmarried couple takes extra planning
While Dave Ramsey’s advice is worth considering, buying a home with someone you’re not married to isn’t necessarily a bad financial decision. It just requires additional planning.
But you should be prepared for what would happen to the house should you break up.
Ramsey is right about divorcing couples having a more direct legal structure when they own a home together. Courts generally decide issues like who keeps the house and how to split equity as part of the divorce proceedings.
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You have to navigate many of those decisions without the same legal framework. This can be especially difficult if the relationship has ended badly.
To set yourself up for success in the event of a breakup, decide together if you both want your names on the deed. The deed determines who legally owns the property. Generally, if you break up and only one person’s name is on the deed, the other person won’t have ownership rights.
You should also decide whether you want both names on the mortgage, which is the actual loan you take out to buy the house. If both names are on the mortgage, both borrowers are generally responsible for repaying the entire loan, regardless of who makes the monthly payments.
Buying a house is a huge commitment no matter what, but it’s even bigger when you buy with someone you aren’t married to yet. Speak with a financial advisor or mortgage expert beforehand for tips and insights on buying as an unmarried couple.
Related: Here’s what a $400,000 mortgage costs in today’s housing market