Middle-income seniors who own a rental income property could better pay for their own future needs if they could sell a rental property, just once in their lifetime, without paying capital gains or federal tax on the income from that sale.
Even with Social Security income and supplementary monthly income from one rental property, many seniors make less than $30,000 per year. Many would forego a regular small rental income for the rest of their lives to be able to invest the full value of their rental property to pay off their home mortgage or use to supplement their monthly income at the rate they feel is appropriate to their own longevity expectations. This could also relieve their children of future financial responsibility for them, easing financial stress on the next two generations.