Selling a home

BSENECAL — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 09:52:44 GMT

Please advise how we might be impacted if we sell our primary home without buying another one in the same calendar year. We will be moving from our primary home (Howell, MI), staying temporarily in our second home (Petoskey, MI) while looking for a replacement for the primary home (moving full time to Petoskey, MI). We may sell the 2nd home at the same time, or we may hang on to the 2nd home, we have not decided that part. It may depend on the purchase price of the new primary home. We need a way to analyze the effects on us if we sell the 1st home and hang on to the proceeds for a bit before buying again. I anticipate that we will sell the home for more than we bought it + the costs of improvements over time, so we should have some capital gains. Please advise if you need more info to answer this! Thanks!

Re: Selling a home

xmasbaby0 — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 17:24:52 GMT

Whether you purchase another home is irrelevant. Prior to 1997, you could avoid capital gains tax by purchasing another home of equal or higher price. That law changed years ago.

SALE OF HOUSE

If your gain was more than $250,000 filing Single, or more than $500,000 filing Married Filing Jointly the sale must be reported on your tax return. Whether you re-invested the gain in to another house is irrelevant. If you have a Form 1099-S go to Federal>Wages and Income>Less Common Income>Sale of Home (gain or loss)

If you owned and lived in the home as your primary residence for at least 2 of the last 5 years on the date of the sale, you do not have to report the home sale if the gain is less than $250K filing Single, or less than $500K filing Married Filing Jointly (and you both owned and lived in the home for at least 2 years).

If you are using online TT, you need Premium software to report the 1099-S

NOTE: If you have ever used the home as rental property or claimed a home office, you have more information to enter

topic Selling a home in Retirement tax questions

Selling a home

Re: Selling a home