The Hidden Tax Trap Keeping America’s Housing Market Frozen
America’s housing crisis has reached a breaking point. With median home prices soaring past $400,000, the National Association of Home Builders reports that 60 percent of U.S. households can’t even afford a $300,000 home. The math has become impossible for most American families. While we often blame high mortgage rates, restrictive zoning laws and rising construction costs for the housing shortage, there’s another culprit hiding in plain sight: a decades-old tax rule that’s trapping millions of homeowners in houses they’d rather leave. The $500,000 Problem When Congress overhauled capital gains taxes on home sales in 1997, they created what seemed like a generous benefit: homeownersRead More →
