Every Figure Here Is Quoted and Dated, and the Gaps Are Labelled as Gaps
Program and regulatory figures verified October 10, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
The sourcing rules are the product here. Georgia's code is unusually hard to read on the open web, and this page says exactly what we did about that.
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 divorce, we make no attorney referrals, we take no position on how property should be divided, and we give no advice on whether to demand a jury trial.
★ Where every figure comes from
| Claim | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| ★★★ Intangible recording tax $1.50/$500, $25,000 cap, pass-through, penalties | Georgia Department of Revenue, Intangible Recording Tax | 2026-10-10 |
| ★★ Transfer tax rate; "the seller is liable"; the clerk's certification | Georgia Department of Revenue, Real Estate Transfer Tax | 2026-10-10 |
| ★★ $2,000 exemption off a 40% assessment; the $4,000 and $30,000 figures; county base-year freezes | Georgia Department of Revenue, Property Tax Homestead Exemptions | 2026-10-10 |
| Consideration "exclusive of any lien or encumbrance… not removed by the sale" | O.C.G.A. § 48-6-1 | 2026-10-10 |
| ★★★ Jury trial demanded in writing; the verdict disposing of property; "equitable powers" | O.C.G.A. § 19-5-1, O.C.G.A. § 19-5-13 | 2026-10-10 |
| Buyout as a limited cash-out; the 12-month and agreement conditions | Fannie Mae Selling Guide B2-1.3-02, Selling Guide B2-1.3-03 | 2026-10-10 |
| Support as income; three-year continuance; lump sums excluded | Selling Guide B3-3.4-02 | 2026-10-10 |
| $832,750 across 159 counties | FHFA conforming-loan-limit data county file, parsed | 2026-10-10 |
| 37 metros; 32 up, Atlanta down | Zillow ZHVI metro file, Aug 2026, parsed | 2026-10-10 |
★★★ Why the code sections carry a 2024 date, and what we did about it
The two divorce-procedure sections are quoted from a codes library dated "Current as of March 28, 2024", which also warns on its own page that it "may not reflect the most recent version of the law."
★★★ We went looking for something better. On 2026-10-10, from here, each alternative failed: Justia returned 403 to an ordinary browser header and to GPTBot and ClaudeBot; ga.elaws.us returned 503; Casetext returned 410 Gone; and the General Assembly's own legis.ga.gov code page returns 200 with no statute text: it is a gateway to a LexisNexis portal. ★★ The source we did use is FindLaw's codes library, which at least dates itself.
★ To be precise about the claim: Justia does publish a Georgia Code, and a reader on a different network may well reach it. What we can say is that it refused every request we made, including with ordinary browser headers, and a citation that fails for the crawlers this site is written for is not a citation we can rely on. ★★ We re-tested it before publishing this paragraph.
★★ So we did two things. We used the dated source only for long-standing procedural provisions, whose subject matter is far less likely to have moved than a dollar amount. And we put every single tax figure on the Department of Revenue, which is current and publishes its own numbers.
★ That discipline came from the state we built immediately before this one, where the same publisher's pages were dated eighteen months apart for two different states and the older set gave a wrong exemption figure. Freshness is per page.
★★ What we deliberately did not publish
- ★★ No rates, no APRs, no payment figures, anywhere.
- ★★★ No summary of Georgia's equitable-division case law. The code states no formula; the doctrine is in the cases; we did not read them and will not paraphrase them. Said plainly on its own page
- ★★★ No answer on whether a county base-year freeze survives a divorce. Possibly the most valuable open question on this site, and we route it to the county tax commissioner rather than guess. Why
- ★★★ No intangible-recording-tax exemption asserted, in either direction. The Department sends those questions to local tax officials; so do we.
- ★★ No application of the § 48-6-1 prior-lien exclusion to any transaction.
- ★★ No advice on demanding a jury trial, and no prediction of what a jury would do.
- ★ No county millage rates and no dollar tax figures.
- ★ Nothing about HB 581 or a statewide floating exemption, not read at a primary source this pass.
- ★★ No forecast of Georgia prices.
- ★★ No attorney referrals and no attorney directory, including on the page for attorneys.
★ That list is the point. A site with no omissions list has either read everything or quietly filled the gaps.
Related sites
We publish state-specific divorce-mortgage guides because property-division law, recording taxes and homestead rules differ by state, and this trio proves it. California requires an equal division by statute; Texas requires one that is just and right; Georgia's code says neither. The three compared.
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 Georgia 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 divorce, make no attorney referrals, take no position on how property should be divided, and give no advice on whether to demand a jury trial.Where do the Georgia figures on this site come from?
Every tax figure comes from the Georgia Department of Revenue. The two divorce-procedure code sections come from a codes library dated Current as of March 28, 2024. Loan limits come from the parsed FHFA 2026 county file, agency rules from the Fannie Mae Selling Guide read on 10 October 2026, and market values from the Zillow metro file for August 2026.Why doesn't this site cite the Georgia Code directly?
Because Georgia's code has no current, machine-readable public host that we could find. The major legal mirrors returned 403 and 503 errors or had removed the pages, and the General Assembly's code page is a gateway to a commercial portal rather than readable text. We therefore used a dated source only for long-standing procedural provisions and put every tax figure on the Department of Revenue.Why won't this site summarise Georgia's equitable division case law?
Because we did not read those cases at a primary source, and paraphrasing case law from memory is how wrong citations get published and repeated. The Georgia code states no division formula, so the standard is a question for your attorney.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 divorce, does not make attorney referrals, takes no position on how property should be divided, and gives no advice on whether to demand a jury trial. Georgia property division is governed by the Official Code of Georgia Annotated and by case law and is applied by the superior courts; the intangible recording tax and the real estate transfer tax are administered by the Georgia Department of Revenue and collected by the clerk of the superior court, and homestead exemptions are administered by county tax officials. 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.