this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
125 points (79.1% liked)

News

23387 readers
2476 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

After 33 years and four children, Baby Boomers Marta and Octavian Dragos say they feel trapped in what was once their dream home in El Cerrito, California.

Both over 70, the Dragos are empty nesters, and like many of their generation, they’re trying to figure out how to downsize from their 3,000-square-foot, five-bedroom home.

“We are here in a huge house with no family nearby, trying to make a wise decision, both financially and for our well-being,” said Dragos, a retired teacher.

But selling and downsizing isn’t easy, appealing or even financially advantageous for many homeowners like the Dragos family.

Many Boomers whose homes have surged in value now face massive capital gains tax bills when they sell. This is a kind of tax on the profit you make when selling an investment or an asset, like a home, that has increased in value.

Plus, smaller homes or apartments in the neighborhoods they’ve come to love are rare. And with current prices and mortgage rates so high, there is often a negligible cost difference between their current home and a smaller one.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I see you've never sold a house. If you do, have fun losing 15% of that value. The only way to prevent that is for your house to not accrue any value while you lived in it.

[–] drdabbles@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Cry to someone that gives a shit. Be less greedy. I've paid my share of capital gains, you don't see me crying like a greedy little piggy about it.

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's too bad no one agrees with you and you'll die mad about it.

[–] drdabbles@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Seems like plenty people agree taxes should be paid. In fact so many people agree that it's a law. Your greed will never fill that void, btw.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You can actually deduct the cost of any improvements you've made to the home. You can't do much about inflation costs, but are you really arguing that it's bad to only receive 85% of free money rather than 0% by not selling?

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Except you aren't just selling. You also have to buy. And if from the tax and high housing prices it's a wash to downsize, there's not nearly the incentive to.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

High housing prices also mean a high selling price for you too and taxes being percentage based means there's never a scenario where you wind up with less money than you would from selling a smaller, cheaper house because regardless of where you are, bigger houses sell for a lot more than smaller houses. The only scenario where this makes sense is if you sold a large home in a place like rural Oklahoma and moved to a shoebox in San Francisco, but that's not what's being described in the article.

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You've missed the point. People are breaking even downsizing. That'll mean they won't. It goes over this in detail in the article.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

If I've missed the point then why can't you explain how big houses are selling for nearly the same as small houses to the point where people are breaking even going from 3000sqft 5 bedroom homes to a 1200sqft 2 bedroom? A 15-20% loss from capital gains over 500k isn't going to do that nor is an additional 15% tax from California.

The only possible scenario where that makes sense is if you're comparing a $500k home from a married couple to another couple with a home valued at 30% over $500k. For those people, they're going to receive the same as the couple who had $500k in capital gains. This is a math problem so you can't just waive it away with "my opinion is different and you missed my point."

The example in the article is absurd as a single family home with property isn't going to sell for slightly more than a condo unit in some giant complex. That's why they had to rely on an example with made up numbers. If you look up a home their size in El Cerrito, just outside San Francisco, you're looking at $1.6M while a condo is going for $400k. Surely they could afford a $400k condo with $1.37M in profit.

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So now you're doubting the article because you've got nothing else. Cherry picking numbers so you don't have to face the arguments presented.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 0 points 9 months ago

You haven't presented any argument other than saying "you're wrong," and yes I absolutely disagree with the article based on real, verifiable facts. Cherry picking numbers? The numbers in the article are fictional. You can go check out Trulia or Zillow and see the selling price for a home that size and the purchase price of a condo in the same area.