Months per year for Primary Residence? (Austin: lease, home owners insurance, mortgage)

[Dave F.]

Does anyone know if Texas has a guideline for how many months per year a person must live in a home to call it a primary residence? The I.R.S. says something to the effect of a person must reside at least 24 months in 5 years to qualify as primary residence for tax purposes.
This is not for tax purposes but, I'd think if that's the Federal guideline, the States would pretty much follow suit, yeah?

[achtungpv]

I've always wondered how the IRS knows where you're actually living if you have two homes in two states. Seems like you can change your mailing address/driver's license to which ever you like. Any idea?

[IC_deLight]

Sounds like you may be trying to establish residency for a particular purpose. Perhaps you could elaborate on the purpose to get a better answer.

For example, are you attempting to establish residency for purposes of qualifying for in-state tuition at one of the state universities? Are you attempting to establish residency for purposes of voting? Are you trying to establish residency for purposes of establishing non-residency with respect to a state that charges a state income tax? In the latter case, each state can have its own test for residency and the other state's determination is irrelevant.

You can have more than one domicile but generally only one primary residence. The test for residency can be different depending upon the entity you are seeking qualification from. If you can elaborate more on the purpose of residency, then perhaps you can be pointed in the correct direction with a greater degree of certainty in your position.

[austin-steve]

Your question only matters if you wish to take the homestead exemption on your property taxes. We don't have state income taxes, so there is no other area of life in which your status as a Texas homeowner matters.

To qualify for a homestead exemption, you must live in the home on January 1st, and file for the exemption. There is also a little known exception, whereas if you own the home as your primary residence, but live out of state and do not claim another out of state home as your primary residence, and you intend to return to your Texas home, it can retain the homestead status.

In other words, if I live in my homestead, then I get transferred on assignment for a year or two, or even longer - it doesn't matter, I can rent out my home and keep the homestead exemption as long as I can honestly state my intention to return and re-occupy the home in the future.

Steve

[Dave F.]

Thanks all. This is for mortgage purposes. A loan. Buying a house but, just not possible to move in within 30 days of closing. On top of that, once moved in, may not even reside there some of the year. They're getting pretty stringent these days on the loans.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by Dave F.

Thanks all. This is for mortgage purposes. A loan. Buying a house but, just not possible to move in within 30 days of closing. On top of that, once moved in, may not even reside there some of the year. They're getting pretty stringent these days on the loans.

I believe if you read the fine print, you must acknowledge your intention to occupy the home with 90 days (perhaps it's shortened to 30 now). You are doing the right thing though to make sure you are not committing loan fraud, but if you actually do intend to owner-occupy the home, and you are not an investor trying to beat the system, I believe you should be able to meet the occupancy requirements by taking possession, paying the utilities, receiving mail, etc., even if you are in transition.

But do verify everything with your lender.

Steve

[Dave F.]

Thanks Steve. Yep, it's 30 days now. Makes a x-country move difficult especially for a family with 2 little kids. The deal is we don't want to pull the kids out of school mid year so thought it best to move in summer. Found a house that is ideal for us, don't want to pass up and the owner agreed to stay on and lease until we got there. Playin' by the rules and gettin' thru all the red tape and B.S. these days is exhausting! Anyhow, thanks for the replies.

[austin-steve]

One workaround is to set the closing date out into the future, closer to your moving time frame. The seller might not like that though. And you interest rate, credit, etc. would have to be updated within 90 days of the actual closing date. But I've had deals where we did that. Our seller required a $5,000 "option fee" to hold the property off the market for 4 months, but the deal happened.

The question is "what qualifies as taking occupancy and living there?"

If, within 30 days of closing, you fly to Austin, walk in the house with a duffel bag, set up a bedroom and a dining area, and spend one night eating and sleeping there, your insurance company considers that "living there" and it resets your "days vacant" clock for the purpose of home owners insurance.

I doubt you can get a straight, checklist type of answer from the lender though.

Good luck.

Steve

[stanley katz]

how many months each year do i have to live in new jersey to keep my reidency. as i have another house in another state

[stanley katz]

how many months each year do i have to live in new jersey to keep my reidency as i have a house in another state