Personal residence sales. I lived in a townhome from June 2013 till Dec 2018. Now I am selling townhome to get tax free gains. How the new tax laws affect my situation?

[RedmondResidence]

There are substantial gains I am expecting. Do I need to hold it for 5 years according to new tax laws for the gains to be tax free?  

[jtax]

See https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/taxes/2017/12/20/6-ways-the-tax-plan-could-change-homeownership...

It says the rule is not changed. You can still get $250k of gains tax free ($500 married joint) if  you lived in the home for two of the previous five years.

This seems to be confirmed by the conference committee report page 108-09, which says section 121 (allowing the exclusion) was not included in the reconciled bill. http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/JointExplanatoryStatement121517.pdf

It is harder to verify the lack of a change than a specific change.

[ghost]

Correct.
"Capital gains exclusion: Home sellers can exclude up to $500,000 for joint filers or $250,000 for single filers for capital gains when selling a primary home as long as the homeowner has lived in the residence for two of the past five years. An earlier proposal would have increased that requirement to five out of the last eight years but it was struck down."
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2017/12/20/how-the-tax-bill-impacts-homeowners-...>

[RedmondResidence]

Thank you very much for confirming.