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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim McMannis who wrote (3521)	7/21/2002 1:51:28 PM
From: Tradelite	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Jim....do you regard living in a property as your principal residence, for a minimum of two years, and then selling it, to be flipping? Some figures (and these vary from source to source) put the average or mean or median length of time people stay in one home to be around 7 years. Two years of living in the same home is about all many people can manage these days, the way people change jobs and employers all the time. I don't know exactly who invented and engineered the original tax break on profits from the sale of a principal residence and then widened the tax break later, but I'm glad someone did. <<gg>>> Would we object if the feds further cut the capital gains tax on stock profits? (I wouldn't). Personally, I've always had a problem with the IRS phrase known as "unearned income." To get unearned income (cap gains), people have to take risk, and in the case of home ownership, they have to put money into maintenance. They should be able to hold onto more of the gains which result from this, or else, why bother? Which takes us back to the original problem you seem to have with the government trying to encourage home ownership. I don't believe many of us aspire to live in "the projects" under government subsidies. The neighborhood improves and is a better place to live when most of the residents own their homes and pay property taxes to fund local schools and services. Also cuts down on crime and saves us the cost of doubling the size of the local police force. My opinion only, but apparently shared by those who make public policy. Doubt this long-standing policy--or the politics behind it-- will change anytime soon.