It is not common for long term residential rental real estate to show a taxable profit "on paper" at tax file time. In fact, it's more common to actually show a loss. (Line 26 of the SCH E)
Rental income is passive. Therefore, rental expenses (including depreciation) can only be used to reduce your taxable passive rental income. Once it gets that taxable rental income to zero, that's it. You're done. Any excess losses are carried over to the next year.
Typically, when you add up the deductible rental expenses of mortgage interest, property insurance, property taxes, and the depreciation you're required to take, those four items alone will commonly exceed the total rental income received for the entire tax year. Add to that other deductible rental expenses such as HOA fees, repairs, maintenance, etc., and you're almost guaranteed to show a loss.
With the loss carried over each year, those Passive Activity Loss (PAL) carry overs generally increase with each passing year. That's normal. You can't use and realize those losses against other types of income (such as W-2 income) until the tax year you sell.
Now with the tax law changes of 2018, if your AGI is below a certain threshold, you can deduct up to a maximum of $25K from your "other" ordinary income, if you have that "other" taxable income to deduct it from. But not all meet the requirements for this. (Not sure, but I think if your AGI is above $160K, then you don't qualify.)
Even so, any losses left over get carried over to the next year, and you'll see that carry over amount on IRS Form 8582.
