President Donald Trump is reportedly weighing another major tax break — and this time, longtime homeowners sitting on large gains could emerge as some of the biggest winners.
The idea came up during a Fox Business discussion between National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and Larry Kudlow, who held Hassett's job during Trump's first term.
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Kudlow said he had personally discussed two ideas with Trump: indexing capital gains to inflation and offering a bigger capital gains tax exemption on home sales. Trump, according to Kudlow, liked both ideas.
"I spoke to him, he liked the idea of the indexing, he liked the idea of a bigger exemption," Kudlow said (1), adding that "the boss is very interested."
Hassett suggested Americans could hear much more from the administration as November's midterm elections approach.
"You can expect a lot more policy between now and the midterms," he said.
The White House, however, has stopped short of confirming that a specific proposal is coming.
"President Trump is always exploring new ideas to Make America Wealthy Again, but any policy announcements will come from the Administration directly," White House spokesman Kush Desai told CNBC in an email (2).
Selling your primary residence can already come with a sizable tax break.
Under current IRS rules (3), qualifying homeowners can exclude up to $250,000 in capital gains from the sale of their main home. For married couples filing jointly, that exclusion can climb to $500,000.
But the math becomes much more painful for Americans whose homes have appreciated dramatically.
Imagine a married couple who bought a home decades ago for $200,000 and can now sell it for $1.2 million. Before accounting for adjustments to their cost basis and selling expenses, that's a $1 million gain — well above the current $500,000 exclusion.
And after years of rising home prices, that situation is no longer confined to owners of ultra-luxury mansions. The current $250,000 and $500,000 exclusion limits have remained unchanged since they were established in 1997.
That's a key part of Kudlow's argument for giving homeowners more relief.
"These are not necessarily rich people," he said. "These are empty nesters who owned a house for 30 or 40 [years], but they shouldn't have to pay the Biden inflation tax."
Kudlow has floated exempting home sales worth as much as $2 million from capital gains taxes. Trump has also previously entertained an even more sweeping approach.
"We are thinking about no tax on capital gains on houses," Trump said (4) in July 2025.
For now, though, it remains to be seen whether any of these ideas actually become policy.
But homeowners don't necessarily have to wait for Washington to act in order to make use of the wealth they've already built up in their properties.
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Selling your house is one way to unlock the wealth tied up in it. But if you like where you live, moving simply to access that equity may not be particularly appealing.
If you're a homeowner, another way to easily tap into liquidity is through a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC). It's a revolving line of credit that leverages the equity in your home as collateral, so that you can borrow and repay funds as needed — similar to a credit card.
AmeriSave offers a flexible HELOC that lets homeowners borrow against their equity as needed during a draw period, making it useful for renovations or debt consolidation. The application is almost entirely online and available in most states.
It's a good fit for borrowers who want convenience and flexibility rather than a large lump-sum loan up-front. You can draw funds only when you need them, so it's useful for ongoing or unpredictable costs. Interest is charged just on what you use and you repay the balance over time. It's essentially a flexible credit line secured by your home, delivered through a mostly online application process.
Kudlow specifically pointed to empty nesters who have owned their homes for 30 or 40 years — the kind of homeowners who may be sitting on substantial equity but have little desire to sell.
If you're at least 62, a reverse mortgage lets you convert a portion of your home equity into cash — without selling the property or making monthly loan repayments. You can take the funds as a lump sum, a line of credit or fixed monthly payments. The loan is repaid when you sell the home, permanently move out or pass away.
It's not the right move for everyone, but for late-stage savers who need to supplement income in retirement without liquidating investments, it's a meaningful option worth understanding.
Companies such as Longbridge can help you explore what this could look like for your specific situation.
Homeowners who have watched their properties climb in value over the years already know how powerful real estate can be as a wealth-building asset.
But buying a rental property comes with much bigger hurdles.
There's the down payment, closing costs and financing — followed by the ongoing responsibilities of finding tenants, collecting rent, paying the mortgage and handling everything from tenant issues to unexpected repairs.
The good news? You don't need to buy a property outright — or deal with leaky faucets — to invest in real estate today. Mogul is a crowdfunding platform that offers an easier way to get exposure to this income-generating asset class.
As a real estate investment option offering fractional ownership in blue-chip rental properties, it provides investors with monthly rental income, real-time appreciation, and tax benefits — without the need for a hefty down payment or 3 a.m. tenant calls.
Founded by former Goldman Sachs real estate investors, the team handpicks the top 1% of single-family rental homes nationwide for you. In other words, you gain access to institutional-quality offerings for a fraction of the usual cost.
Each property undergoes a rigorous vetting process, requiring a minimum 12% return even in downside scenarios. Across the board, the platform features an average annual IRR of 18.8%. Their cash-on-cash yields, meanwhile, average between 10% and 12% annually. Offerings often sell out in under three hours, with investments typically ranging between $15,000 and $40,000 per property.
Sign up for an account and browse available properties here to start investing today.
Another option is to leverage multifamily properties to diversify your real estate portfolio. In fact, in a report (5) prepared by JPMorgan Chase, Al Brooks — the firm's vice chair of Commercial Banking — said, "I think multifamily housing is absolutely where you want to be as an investor."
Accredited investors can now tap into this opportunity through platforms such as Lightstone DIRECT, which gives accredited investors access to single-asset multifamily and industrial deals.
Lightstone DIRECT's direct-to-investor model ensures a high degree of alignment between individual investors and a vertically-integrated, institutional owner-operator — a sophisticated and streamlined option for individual investors looking to diversify into private-market real estate.
With Lightstone DIRECT, accredited individuals can access the same multifamily and industrial assets Lightstone pursues with its own capital, with minimum investments starting at $100,000.
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Fox Business (1); CNBC (2); Internal Revenue Service (3); Reuters (4); JPMorgan Chase (5)
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