| Posted: 09 August 2025 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | 5
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My previous house had a curious history. Built in 1845–one of four identical houses—it was originally owned by Samuel H Wheeler, one of the founders of what would become the Singer sewing machine company. It has seventeen rooms on not quite two acres.* The family that bought it from then Wheelers eventually abandoned it—I know not why. It was basically derelict for a decade. Then it was acquired by Bill Ruger, of the same name gun company, for $35,000. That was in the mid-Seventies. Bill restored it and sold it for $135,000, circa 1975. I bought it from that family in 1985 for $335,000. Twenty years later I sold it for $2,335,000. Thing is, that $2,000,000 price difference had nothing to do with any improvements. It was strictly inflation. The tax boys, however insisted it was capital gains and did the best they could to take as much as they could. Not sure how something can be seen as capital gains when EVERYTHING has increased by the same proportions! _____ *At some point one of the sister houses had been demolished and its front had been attached to the back of what would one day be my house. This turned a T into an H. One of the things Ruger did was detach the attachment and restore the original lines. By the time I came along the fourth house had also disappeared.
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