Most accountants will tell you to credit equity for unrealized appreciation in your assets.
But if you are doing your own books, it's really your choice in terms of what types of reports you want to see and how you want to use. Sometimes I credit income accounts for unrealized appreciation because it makes it easier for me to track how a certain asset account has grown or shrunk year by year and what types of income (realized, unrealized, taxable or not yet taxed) it has thrown off. When the income is eventually realized I credit realized income and debit unrealized income, which works for me. But it's really a matter of how you want things to work for you. On Mon, Sep 15, 2025, 5:03 PM Kalpesh Patel <[email protected]> wrote: > I've done something similar. > > I've created a sub-account called "Appreciation" underneath the real estate > asset holding account, and then I add the valuation transaction as noted in > the appraisal report in "Appreciation" against "Retained Earnings" > underneath "Equity". > > -----Original Message----- > From: Murugan Mariappan <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, September 15, 2025 8:49 AM > To: [email protected]; Harold Hallikainen <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [GNC] How to Properly Record Valuation Changes in Home Value? > > Revlaution suplus / deficit should be treated as non P&L items, so best way > to is to create a Revaluation Account under Equity and pass the entries for > example > > > Dr Assets:Building (PPE) $100,000 > Cr Equity: Revaluation Account $100,000 > > If there is a loss then it will be in the reverse for example > > Cr Assets:Building (PPE) $50,000 > Dr Equity: Revaluation Account $50,000 > > > > Saludos Cordiales > > > Murugan > > ________________________________ > From: gnucash-user > <[email protected]> on behalf of > Harold Hallikainen via gnucash-user <[email protected]> > Sent: 15 September 2025 00:03 > To: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [GNC] How to Properly Record Valuation Changes in Home Value? > > I'd be tempted to have two subaccounts in the MyHome asset. These would be > Purchase Price and Unrealized Appreciation. Then have an income account > called Unrealized Income. > > Harold > > > On Sun, September 14, 2025 7:57 pm, Tom Route-36 wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > > > This is more of a double entry bookkeeping question rather than > > something specific to GnuCash; but I'd appreciate any input on the > > proper way to do this. I'm tracking the valuation changes of my > > personal home based on notices that I get every 2 years from the > > County Assessor. When I was using Quicken, I did this in a single > > account (named MyHome). The opening balance of MyHome was my original > > purchase price. And then every 2 years as I got updated valuation > > notices, I'd record a transaction back into that same MyHome account > > (since Quicken would let me do that) to adjust the MyHome account > > balance to make it match the current value listed on the County > Assessor's > notice. > > > > Now that I'm using GnuCash and having to do things properly with > > double entry accounting, I was wondering how to go back and fix > > things. I know I still want an Asset account for MyHome to track the > > valuation. But for DE accounting, what should I be using for that > > corresponding second account to balance things out as the valuation > changes? > > > > Tom > > _______________________________________________ > > gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your > > subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > > ----- > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > > > > > > -- > Not sent from an iPhone. > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > [email protected] > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > ----- > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > [email protected] > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > ----- > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
