[sokoloff]

Adjustment: You would typically pay capital gains on only around $2M of that. You’d likely qualify for the $250K per person exclusion on a primary residence and have several hundred thousand dollars of capital improvements that you’d made over that 35 year period.

[poulsbohemian]

Thank you for saying this! As a Realtor, I am constantly talking with people who are scared to sell a house because they are so sure they are going to be taxed to death, all while completely ignoring the big wad of cash that they will receive when they sell. People have an absolutely irrational fear of taxes to the point they do crazy things. Yes, I'm sure there are markets where if someone has lived in a house for decades they might have to be vaguely aware of capital gains, but in my market, practically speaking, nobody is lucky enough to have this as a problem.

[mywittyname]

> People have an absolutely irrational fear of taxes to the point they do crazy things.

I've always wondered how/why otherwise smart people fall into this trap. There are calculators out there for anything and everything tax-related under the sun. See also: I don't want a raise because then I'll go up a tax bracket and make less money!

Then again, there are people who won't get married due to (legitimate) increased tax burden. There are also people who run otherwise successful businesses into the ground specifically to avoid paying taxes. I think some people are just really, really adverse to the idea of paying taxes. Like the idea hits them at some core, fundamental level.