Any advice for recording home value, equity, and mortgage in Quicken for Mac?

jora45

I'm interested in hearing about how others have set up their homes and mortgages in Quicken for Mac. There appears to be a feature in Quicken for Windows, a "house account", that Quicken for Mac doesn't have.

I have set up two accounts, a Mortgage account to track the mortgage and an Asset account to track the value of the house (presently set to the purchase price). What do you do to record the down payment? Is a third, hidden account, that just tracks equity the only choice?

Jeff Bowman

Hi Jora,

As you don't have a "house"-type account, the Asset for the value side is the correct choice. Arguably, the total value should include any improvements (roof, pool, room additions), so having a multi-level Asset can provide a better insight to the overall value.

The short answer to your next question is your down payment is part the value of the house.

As you may know when you purchase property, at the end of the process the escrow company provides the buyers and seller a detailed "closing statement" which outlines the property(ies) included in the transaction as well as any other costs/fees. You can take this closing statement (depending on your personal level of detail), and enter a "split" transaction in the mortgage (not asset) account transaction, where you might detail some of the "closing statement" items to bank, incidental (such as inspections) and other costs. Two (or perhaps more) of the transactions in the split would "point" (think transfer) the "Value" of the house to the Asset Account.

Remember, Quicken doesn't have an "accounting"- style "journal entry, so know that the net result of your "mortgage" transaction will be the amount you OWE to the mortgage note holder, for example (recorded in the liability account):

Bought house (Asset account) $500,000
Down payment (Paid cash) - 200,000

The net of this transaction is ($500,000 - $200,000=) $300,000 and when entered would show the liability (amount owed) as $300,000, but the value of the asset as $500,000.

If you were "moving-up" from one home to another, you would have one transaction line in the closing statement "selling" the old house (the "transfer" transaction quicken would point to that old house asset, reducing it's value to zero) and another transfer transaction line to the "new" house asset increasing it's value. If you sold your old house at a profit (congrats to you), you'ld create a new income/loss category "Proceeds on sale of property" to track that income/loss.

Jeff Bowman

Hi Jora,

As you don't have a "house"-type account, the Asset for the value side is the correct choice. Arguably, the total value should include any improvements (roof, pool, room additions), so having a multi-level Asset can provide a better insight to the overall value.

The short answer to your next question is your down payment is part the value of the house.

As you may know when you purchase property, at the end of the process the escrow company provides the buyers and seller a detailed "closing statement" which outlines the property(ies) included in the transaction as well as any other costs/fees. You can take this closing statement (depending on your personal level of detail), and enter a "split" transaction in the mortgage (not asset) account transaction, where you might detail some of the "closing statement" items to bank, incidental (such as inspections) and other costs. Two (or perhaps more) of the transactions in the split would "point" (think transfer) the "Value" of the house to the Asset Account.

Remember, Quicken doesn't have an "accounting"- style "journal entry, so know that the net result of your "mortgage" transaction will be the amount you OWE to the mortgage note holder, for example (recorded in the liability account):

Bought house (Asset account) $500,000
Down payment (Paid cash) - 200,000

The net of this transaction is ($500,000 - $200,000=) $300,000 and when entered would show the liability (amount owed) as $300,000, but the value of the asset as $500,000.

If you were "moving-up" from one home to another, you would have one transaction line in the closing statement "selling" the old house (the "transfer" transaction quicken would point to that old house asset, reducing it's value to zero) and another transfer transaction line to the "new" house asset increasing it's value. If you sold your old house at a profit (congrats to you), you'ld create a new income/loss category "Proceeds on sale of property" to track that income/loss.