"The only exception would be if the house was wrong for their new situation. For example they are both having to commute long distances or it isn't handicap friendly and she needs handicap friendly. But in those cases, you are getting rid of the house for practical, real world reasons and not just silly sentiment."

Exactly! And it works both ways...I have a friend whose husband has flat refused to leave their run-down house in a dangerous neighborhood by the highway because it was his mother's house.

I've asked him, "Don't you think your mother would rather see you sell the house, use the money as a down payment for a nicer place in a safer part of town, and raise your children in peace, than stay in 'her house?'"

I'm usually told that it's a "cultural" thing and that I couldn't possibly understand. Sigh...whatever. When sentiment overtakes common sense...