Ready for another capital gains tax "myth"....This is one I read about all the time: Those dreaded boomers who sell their residence that has doubled and more in price and cash in with a HUGE TAX FREE windfall!!!!!
That could be me and a few of my friends but it really does not happen in reallity. I guess it could for somebody who owned a cottage as well and move there in retirement after selling the their "residence" but for the "one house, one guy" crowd it simply does not work out that way.
If I sold my paid off, sort of "tired" old house I woud get what it costs to buy a 2 bedroom condo now.
Add all the expenses of prepping the place for a sale, sales expense and moving and it's a loosing proposition.
A few of my friends in the same situation have done the math and came to the same conclusion....so we stay where we are. Oh, to be twenty years old again, sell the house for the big bucks, buy a van and just "hit the road"...NIRVAVA right??? Except you can't physically do that in your seventies.
It sort of works if one is moving to an assisted living facility (because he HAS to) but at 4-5 thoushand a month the risk is running out of money. Then what?
It's not the boomers that will cash in....it is their heirs when the boomers "check out".
With the boomers who pocketed the cash and moved to the cottage....the heirs will have to pay capital gains tax on the cottage.