Another interesting question following dmertz's comment
"each spouse gets a separate exclusion of up to $250,000, as if not married, and the two exclusion amounts add together on the joint tax return,"
is that in order to avoid any tax on the gains from selling the two houses, do the profits from the houses have to be both below $250K? For example, if one house makes $100K, and the other makes $300K. Does the second one have to pay tax because the corresponding spouse can only exclude $250K?
