We've made numerous improvements. We lost money when the housing market crashed in 2008. Can we recover some of that money?

[Anonymous]

if you're referring to your personal residence a loss isn't deductible. if there's a gain you should be able to claim an exemption - up to $500,000 providing the rules are met.   if it's rental property any loss on the sale would be deductible while gain would be taxable with the portion of any gain up to the amount of depreciation that should have been taken taxed as 1250 recapture which may have a higher rate than long-term capital gains.  

regardless of what type of property, no loss is allowed until sold. 

[Opus 17]

Anytime you sell personal property for less than you paid for it (which is technically a capital loss) the loss is not deductible.  This includes your home.

Losses are sometimes deductible on investments and business property, although with business property you have to consider depreciation, so sometimes selling property for less than you paid for it still results in a taxable gain.