[GNC] How to Properly Record Valuation Changes in Home Value?

Mon Sep 15 21:39:27 EDT 2025

I can offer yet another opinion...

I wouldn't record unrealised gains as Equity transfers.  A house purchased
for $40k in 1976 would enjoy increasing values via period transfers from
equity; and if the up-to-date valuation is $800k, and you sell today,
you'll be recording a negligible capital gain. It is in my view that
appreciating assets are best recorded as purchase price and left alone
until the sale, then a large capital gain is recorded as income.

I would however unrealised losses as periodic expenses. A car purchased for
$30k in 2020 and depreciates annually, and I may claim partially as a tax
deduction.

IANAA of course.

C

On Tue, 16 Sept 2025 at 09:02, Tom Route-36 <tom.route36 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I wanted to reply to all of you here who jumped in with your advice and
> comments.  I think I understand the proper way to handle this now.  And
> it seems pretty simple and straightforward too thanks to all your
> feedback.  To keep things recorded properly I just need to create a new
> Equity account (named Unrealized Appreciation or something similar).
> And then for each valuation change entry in my Asset account (MyHome) I
> put a corresponding entry in that new Equity account to balance things.
> Really simple now that I look back on my question.  Anyway, thanks again
> to everybody.
>
> Tom
>
>
>
> On 9/15/2025 4:30 PM, David Warren wrote:
> > Most accountants will tell you to credit equity for unrealized
> appreciation
> > in your assets.
> >
> > But if you are doing your own books, it's really your choice in terms of
> > what types of reports you want to see and how you want to use. Sometimes
> I
> > credit income accounts for unrealized appreciation because it makes it
> > easier for me to track how a certain asset account has grown or shrunk
> year
> > by year and what types of income (realized, unrealized, taxable or not
> yet
> > taxed) it has thrown off. When the income is eventually realized I credit
> > realized income and debit unrealized income, which works for me. But it's
> > really a matter of how you want things to work for you.
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 15, 2025, 5:03 PM Kalpesh Patel <kalpesh.patel at usa.net>
> wrote:
> >
> >> I've done something similar.
> >>
> >> I've created a sub-account called "Appreciation" underneath the real
> estate
> >> asset holding account, and then I add the valuation transaction as
> noted in
> >> the appraisal report in "Appreciation" against "Retained Earnings"
> >> underneath "Equity".
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Murugan Mariappan <m.muruganandam at hotmail.com>
> >> Sent: Monday, September 15, 2025 8:49 AM
> >> To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org; Harold Hallikainen <
> harold at hallikainen.org>
> >> Subject: Re: [GNC] How to Properly Record Valuation Changes in Home
> Value?
> >>
> >> Revlaution suplus / deficit should be treated as non P&L items, so best
> way
> >> to is to create a Revaluation Account under Equity and pass the entries
> for
> >> example
> >>
> >>
> >> Dr Assets:Building (PPE)                         $100,000
> >>      Cr Equity: Revaluation Account         $100,000
> >>
> >> If there is a loss then it will  be in the reverse for example
> >>
> >> Cr Assets:Building (PPE)                         $50,000
> >>      Dr Equity: Revaluation Account         $50,000
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Saludos Cordiales
> >>
> >>
> >> Murugan
> >>
> >> ________________________________
> >> From: gnucash-user
> >> <gnucash-user-bounces+m.muruganandam=hotmail.com at gnucash.org> on
> behalf of
> >> Harold Hallikainen via gnucash-user <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> >> Sent: 15 September 2025 00:03
> >> To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org <gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> >> Subject: Re: [GNC] How to Properly Record Valuation Changes in Home
> Value?
> >>
> >> I'd be tempted to have two subaccounts in the MyHome asset. These would
> be
> >> Purchase Price and Unrealized Appreciation. Then have an income account
> >> called Unrealized Income.
> >>
> >> Harold
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, September 14, 2025 7:57 pm, Tom Route-36 wrote:
> >>> Hi all,
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> This is more of a double entry bookkeeping question rather than
> >>> something specific to GnuCash; but I'd appreciate any input on the
> >>> proper way to do this.  I'm tracking the valuation changes of my
> >>> personal home based on notices that I get every 2 years from the
> >>> County Assessor.  When I was using Quicken, I did this in a single
> >>> account (named MyHome).  The opening balance of MyHome was my original
> >>> purchase price.  And then every 2 years as I got updated valuation
> >>> notices, I'd record a transaction back into that same MyHome account
> >>> (since Quicken would let me do that) to adjust the MyHome account
> >>> balance to make it match the current value listed on the County
> >> Assessor's
> >> notice.
> >>>
> >>> Now that I'm using GnuCash and having to do things properly with
> >>> double entry accounting, I was wondering how to go back and fix
> >>> things.  I know I still want an Asset account for MyHome to track the
> >>> valuation.  But for DE accounting, what should I be using for that
> >>> corresponding second account to balance things out as the valuation
> >> changes?
> >>>
> >>> Tom
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
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