Florida law says if you have a non-marital asset, such as a house, that increases in value because of labor or contributions, the increase in value from the labor or contributions will be considered a marital asset. For example, let’s say you own a home before you marry and it was worth $250,000, and your mortgage balance was $175,000. After you marry, you add a bedroom, pave the driveway and build a fence. The mortgage balance is now $150,000 which was paid from your wages earned during the marriage. A real estate appraisal determines that the additional bedroom, the new paved driveway and fence have appreciated the home’s value to $300,000. Thereafter you divorce. Even though you owned the home before you got married, the marital assets include the $25,000 equity from the reduction of the mortgage balance from $175,000 down to $150,000, plus the $50,000 due to the increase in the value of the home from the improvements of the bedroom, driveway and fence. That means that $75,000 is marital property subject to division. On the other hand, if the increase in your pre-marital home is solely due to market conditions then the increase in the value of the home remains non-marital property. The difficulty becomes in determining exactly the increased value due to labor or contributions versus increased because of market conditions.