yes. capital gains and losses are reported on the sane form so losses and gains are netted. first short-tetm items are netted. next long term items are netted. if one type is a loss and the other type is a gain they are netted. generally you are allowed to take a net capital losss of up to $3000 each year.
the downside. we don't know your tax situation. if your long-term gains and other inome are low enough there is $0 federal tax on the long-term gain. therefore, taking short-term losses might not have a sigibifcant effect on your taxes for the year of the house sale. Becuase many other items affect your taxes, the only way to know for sure what the tax benefit, if any would be, for taking the short-tem losses is to do an actual tax calculation/projection
