It has been ten years since Congress brought us the homeowner gain exclusion deduction -- one of the most powerful and useful tax-saving tools ever given to homeowners. The deduction itself is simple: If you have lived in your home for two out of the previous five years, you get a tax break when you sell it. If you're married and you file a joint tax return the first $500,000 of gain (the difference between what you paid to buy the property and what you sold it for) you make on the sale is tax-free. If your're single, you get a tax break on the first $250,000 of gain. What constitutes "living in" is pretty flexible, too. Those two years don't have to be consecutive, nor do you have to physically live in your home every day. The IRS allows you to have temporary absences from yur home each year that can be up to 11.5 months! You can literally buy a home, live in it for 2-3 weeks per year for two years and take the entire tax-free gain exclusion.

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