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

Tom Route-36 tom.route36 at gmail.com
Mon Sep 15 23:11:26 EDT 2025 

Hi Christopher,

I just wanted to confirm to you that the purpose of this Asset account 
is strictly to track the current value of my home.  It's so that I have 
at least an approximation of my overall Equity (total assets minus 
liabilities).  And I do understand the difference between the home's 
current value and my cost basis in it (which is much much less from many 
years ago).  No worries.  I track the cost basis as well; but separately.

Tom



On 9/15/2025 8:49 PM, Christopher Lam wrote:
> Replying to myself. GAAP and IFRS both seem to favour historical cost
> accounting.
> 
> On Tue, 16 Sept 2025, 9:39 am Christopher Lam, <christopher.lck at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> 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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>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Not sent from an iPhone.
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