In August 2013 I started a new job in WA. My wife and her kids stayed behind in MA while waiting for the house to sell. She was still there at the end of 2013 and additionally she has no income for the year. After finishing our Federal Return, the MA state return says we cannot file "married filing jointly" because we had different addresses at the end of 2013. More specifically, I either have to pay MA state tax on my WA income since my wife is still in MA, or we have to file federal as "married filing separate" which decimates our tax return.

Can I just claim her as a part year resident of WA as well since she had no income in 2013 in MA anyway, and is only there because our house still hasn't sold yet? If not, is there something else we can do like filing separate state taxes based off the single MFJ return?