Most places here in the USA, houses appreciate. In parts of California
it's not unusual to have situations where they double in value in only
12 months due to one thing or another... And there are situations here
where people pay significant sums to buy a house in order to *tear it
down* because they wanted the lot and are going to build new. When you
figure that the average new single-family detached home here in SoCal
goes for $225,000 and up in outlying areas, and much, much more than
that in so-called "desirable" areas, it can make sense to pay a couple
of hundred thousand to buy and tear down an existing older place and
build a new one that will instantly be worth over half a million.
Tax depreciation of a house here in the USA is most often tied to it
being used as a rental, I would think. In other words, one that is *not*
owner-occupied. Otherwise, if one lives in a house that appreciates
significantly, there can be a significant tax bite at sale time,
depending how one uses the money realized.
There can be lots of other complicated tax crap regarding houses, here,
too.
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Barker [mailto:ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Subject: [OM] Re: Welford Northamptonshire #6
And young couples are having a great deal of trouble finding houses
that they can afford. My (admittedly limited) experience of the house
market in the US is that your houses depreciate in value, and you can
set off the loss against tax. In this country the market is
appreciating fast.
<snip>
Chris
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