Vishal Karnik

What is a 1031 Exchange? A 1031 exchange is a swap of one real estate investment property for another that allows capital gains taxes to be deferred. Who should be aware about it? Folks who currently own or plan to own investment properties. But also current home owners who want to defer the capital gain taxes on their real estate property, by investing into investment properties in future.  Can you do a 1031 Exchange on primary residence? 1031 Exchange deferral is for investment properties. So by definition primary residence cannot be used for a 1031 Exchange. However, you can convert your primary residence into investment property for a period of 2 years by renting out the place and then doing a 1031 Exchange on the property. If you are married, you can defer up to $500,000 in capital gain taxes by doing a 1031 Exchange. What are the requirements? You need to purchase a like-kind property. But the definition of like-kind property is pretty flexible. The new property being purchas...

The following summary is based on data from the California Association of Realtors and FRED interest rates. The sales data used is updated till January. The median home sales price YoY (Year-over-Year) has been up in California, but MoM (Month-over-month) prices have declined. The difference in the SF Bay Area is more stark.  The decline in month-over-month prices indicates that the high-interest rates are having a dampening effect on house prices. People are limiting their purchases of higher-priced homes. Although, Santa Clara County has not seen the MoM (Month-over-month) decline. This indicates a strong demand continuing in Santa Clara County despite the high interest rates. As well as San Francisco County has actually seen an increase in MoM sales. So San Francisco market seems to be favoring higher-priced home sales. This indicates high-priced property buyers are jumping into the market irrespective of the interest rates. This growth might be driven by increased stock valuati...