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The Real Reason People Regret Winning The HGTV Dream Home
By ADRIANNA MACPHERSON
If the idea of winning an incredible, luxurious piece of real estate in a competition sounds like a complete dream to you, well, you're certainly not alone. However, before you rush to enter your name into HGTV’s Dream Home Sweepstakes, you may want to pause for a moment and rethink whether you actually want to be crowned this year's winning homeowner.
It may seem unthinkable to be upset about living in a multi-million dollar home on a prime piece of land, but here's the thing that many people don't always realize about winning such a massive prize - you still need to pay the taxes.
For many winners who would never have even considered buying a home with such a high valuation, the tax bill is just way too big to handle, and they're unable to stay. Country Living reported that by 2018, with over 20 HGTV Dream Home winners crowned, only 28% of the winners actually lived in the home for over a year.
Since those properties with valuations of over $1 million can come with tax bills into the high hundreds of thousands, the vast majority of winners end up either selling the homes back to the developers or accepting the cash alternative. The cash alternative is a lower amount but consequently comes with fewer tax responsibilities and associated costs.
So, before you go throwing your hat in the ring for this year's prize, valued at over $2.4 million, you may want to consider exactly what kind of burden such an expensive piece of property may place on your finances.