I just read in the paper that a townhouse on the next block...

[Reverend_Smitty]

is going double what my dad paid for ours 6 years ago! :wow: He paid $110,000 back in 98, the one listed in the paper is going for $228,000! Talk about a housing boom

[yellowdogintexas]

1. serious home equity going on there! WOW

[izzie]

2. Well I did that in less then 10 years.

It is sort of scary they go up so fast. You wonder just what is going on.We do know in a society like ours things must always grew as it is how things work but it can be scary as you hardly can see it going on for ever. Yet it is what our Eco. is based on.

[hfojvt]

3. you know if he sells it

that is $100,000 of tax free income.
Don't you just love a fair tax system?
BTW that tax loophole was opened in the 2nd Clinton term. Under the old rules it was tax free - provided you rolled it over into a house of equal or greater value within one year.

[Reverend_Smitty]

4. Problem is...

when you sell it, you have to move somewhere and the market is so bloated around here. They are building houses about a half a mile from me that are starting at $500,000 but judging by their size are worth no more than $200,000

[candy]

5. I sold a home in "97 and the entire profit ($250,000)was tax free.

It would be $500,000.00 for a couple.

My daughter and her husband made $300,000 on a house they lived in for 3 years,all tax free.

[hfojvt]

7. Yep, and if I work

for the next fifteen years I will make $300,000 and pay about $2500 in taxes every year. Work is definitely for suckers in this country.

[candy]

11. Believe me.I worked hard all of my life---------------------

It was just timing,no more,no less, and we were lucky!

[sportndandy]

6. Tax Free? How is that?

I thought it was tax-free on your first house. On all succeeding houses, you pay taxes IF you don't buy another house within one year. If you don't buy a house, your profit gets taxed as capital gains. Unless I'm wrong.

[hfojvt]

8. I think it is tax free

on your primary residence, and thus you can do it over and over again, but not with more than one house per year. I could be wrong as well.

[Nay]

9. I believe you have to live in the house for two years as a primary

residnece -- and you can do it over and over again, yes.

[candy]

12. You don't have to buy another house,just live in it for two---

of the preceding five years as your primary residence. My daughter moved twice in 7 years getting large capitol gains each time,tax free.

$250,000 for singles,$500,000 for couples.This started in 1997.

[Tektonik]

10. The value of my mom's townhouse has increased three-fold

She lives in Chatsworth, CA (NW part of the San Fernando Valley, right next to Northridge, where the quake in 94 happened). A few years ago she purchased a two story, 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath filthy, trashed townhouse for 95,000, and now it's worth more than 300,000.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. Five years ago the house across the street sold for $230,000

It's a 40 year old 2 bedroom, one bath, with about 1000 square footage, on a small lot with a bad roof. It sold 10 days ago for $519,000. That's Southern California insanity.

[LiberallyInclined]

14. our's has more than tripled in 9 years.

we're getting out this summer.