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Tax Reform and SunCrest Real Estate

Disclaimer: The following is not meant to be a resource for tax advice but instead a resource for basic information concerning certain aspects of the new tax code and it’s potential impact on the real estate market. Please consult with appropriate legal and tax advisors on how the new code may or may not affect you.

By now, you’ve probably heard about the Senate and House bill that overhauls the tax code. While much is still being learned about it, we felt there were a few major proposals being considered that could potentially affect the SunCrest real estate market:

• Changing the requirements for the exclusion of gain on the sale of a principal residence
• Changing the requirements for like kind (aka 1031) exchanges for real property.
• The reduction on the limit of the Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID).
• The elimination of the State and Local Tax deduction (SALT) which includes property taxes.

That’s some fancy-pants language, so let’s break it down and see what it may mean in real talk.

Changing the requirements for the exclusion of gain on the sale of a principal residence.
What this means: If you sell a home, you must live in it for at least 2 of the last 5 years, or you are subject to a higher tax rate on your gains.
What changed? Nothing! They considered changing it to 5 of the last 7 years, but did not.
Impact: No new impact on the housing market.

Changing the requirements for like kind (aka 1031) exchanges for real property.
What this means: If you sell a home, you can — under certain conditions — avoid being taxed on the gains if you then use your gains to buy a similar property.
What changed? Nothing! The final bill retains the current Section 1031 Like Kind Exchange rules.
Impact: No new impact on the housing market.

The reduction on the limit of the Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID)
What this means: In some situations, you can deduct on your taxes the amount of interest you pay on your mortgage. It had been capped at $1M loans.
What changed? They have reduced the cap amount. Now you can only deduct the interest on new loan amounts (loans made after 12/14/17) up to $750K. Current loans up to $1 million are grandfathered into the old cap.
Impact: Nothing for existing loans. On new home loans, you may still be able to deduct interest on your primary and secondary homes, but only up to $750K. Assuming a 20% down payment, this reduction in the MID will only impact buyers that are purchasing a home between the prices of $938,000 and $1,250,000.

The elimination of the State and Local Tax deduction (SALT) which includes property taxes.
What does this mean: If you itemize your deductions, you could deduct the amount of state and local taxes you paid. That includes property tax. There was no limit.
What changed? There is now a limit of $10K on the amount of state and local taxes (including property tax) you can deduct.
Impact: People who paid over $10K in state and local taxes (think: income tax, sales tax, property tax) will no longer be able to deduct anything over that amount. This affects higher taxed and/or higher priced home regions.

Our take:

Phew! As active, contributing members to our state and national REALTOR Political Action Committee (a fancy way of saying advocates for property rights and home ownership) we’d be lying if we said we weren’t sweating a few of the changes that were being discussed. However, we do not believe the new tax code will have a significant impact on the majority of the SunCrest housing market. We anticipate higher priced, higher taxed regions (NJ, NY, CA) to be the most impacted. The overall effect of the tax bill is really unknown, but if buyers do see an overall tax cut, we’re hopeful it helps them accelerate savings and reach their home ownership goals. The best advice we can give is to seek counsel from qualified legal and tax professionals to see what this will all mean for you.

Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market.  The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.