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

[David Warren]

So when you buy a car, you capitalize it on your balance sheet? (I do too,
just curious what others do). Then I credit an auto asset account and debit
auto expense year by year so I get a fair sense of what the car costs me
annually.

On Thu, Sep 18, 2025, 12:32 PM <gnucash at kcburns.com> wrote:

>
> > Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2025 11:18:18 -0400
> > From: Michael or Penny Novack <stepbystepfarm at comcast.net>
> > To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > Subject: Re: [GNC] How to Properly Record Valuation Changes in Home
> >       Value?
> > Message-ID: <b8121c90-fdf5-420a-9f66-34c16e27a9ad at comcast.net>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
> >
> > On 9/16/2025 12:09 PM, gnucash at kcburns.com wrote:
> >> I have been following this discussion with interest, and now have a
> >> question:
> >>
> >> My Balance Sheet (report) shows an Unrealized Gains line near the
> >> bottom, which is presumably my unrealized investment gains?? But, I do
> >> not find that I have an account named named Unrealized Gains... So, I
> >> wonder how this Unrealized Gains line works, and if I should tap into
> >> that process when recording the Unrealized Gains on my home?
> >> I would prefer to keep these Unrealized Gains lines (investments vs
> >> home) separated, but have them appear one-after-the-other in the
> >> Balance Sheet (report).
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Ken
> >
> > It's a matter of NAMING your account (for unrealized gains)
> >
> > But first an explanation of the "unrealized gains" (or losses) in the
> > Ba;lance Sheet. With gnucash, we do not usually perform a "close the
> > books" operation prior to running the Balance Sheet. So there is a net
> > outstanding sum of all the accounts of types income and expense. These
> > account types are actually of fundamental type Equity, so that net
> > belongs under Equity on the Balance sheet. The name being used is
> > Unrealized Gains (if credit) or Unrealized Losses (if debit)
> >
> > So ---- If you want explicit "Unrealized Gains" accounts you will have
> > to create them with some different name <*> but note that you will want
> > them under assets (or liabilities or equity) and NOT under types income
> > or expense.
> >
> > Michael D Novack
> >
> > * They will be shoeing up where you put them.
>
>
> Thanks Michael!
>
> I now have my unrealized gains/losses for my house (and my autos, since
> I don't depreciate them for tax purposes) showing up as desired in my
> Balance Sheet report (as Equity:Unrealized Gain - Home Appreciation).
>
> Further analyzing GnuCash's internal Unrealized Gains line in the
> Balance Sheet report, I now see that it exactly matches the unrealized
> gains shown in my Advanced Portfolio Report.
>
> So, I am now happy with my bookkeeping!
>
> Thanks,
> Ken
>
>
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