[bombcar]

There's a fairness argument that can be made (but probably should only apply to primary residences only) - you buy a house for $100k in Seattle 10 years ago - now you want to move to another neighborhood into an identical house, but both are now worth upwards of $500k - you'd have to come up with the tax difference on the "profit" even though all you're doing is moving between nearly identical properties.

Also stock sales are more easily "structured" to avoid this tax (sell half this year, half next year) whereas a house has to be sold as a "whole".

[lordnacho]

Can't be hard to invent an exemption for that case. When you buy the new house, the tax is deferred, in proportion to the cost. So if you trade down you pay and you will have the money. If you buy a more expensive place there's nothing to pay, but you have a balance. When you die, you pay the balance or your heirs inherit it.

[medvezhenok]

That's exactly what the 1031 exchange is for

[gnopgnip]

That only applies to investments

[fighterpilot]

That's why we need a land tax instead of a cap gains style tax that applies to transactions.

[LanceH]

Also, in most places there is already a wealth tax on the property itself.