A recent change in the Housing Assistance Act of 2008 signed by President Bush may have some home investors, not just in the Trivalley, but in the whole country worried.  A strategy taxpayers have used in the past to avoid paying capital gains taxes has been to move back into one of their rental properties and to claim it as their primary residence and sell the property after two years of residing there to take advantage of the Homeowner’s Exemption, a law that allows allows a taxpayer to exclude up to $250K ($500K for married couples) of gain realized on the sale of a primary residence.

The Housing Assistance Act of 2008 now includes a change that takes away much of the benefits to this plan.  The following article in the Wall Street Journal speaks in details to this change affecting the modification of the homeowner’s tax exemption.

Chris Kamali is a TriValley Real Estate Agent, helping clients buy and sell homes in Dublin, Pleasanton, San Ramon and Livermore.