Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You'll probably find your answer at http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/avoid-capital-gains-tax-selling-home-29901.html.

Basically, a married couple filing jointly can exclude $500,000 of capital gains on the sale of a home belonging to either or both (as far as title goes), but it needs to be their primary residence. For a taxpayer filing alone, the exclusion is $250,000 -- thus having the effect of producing a different rate.

Note that the capital gain on selling a home isn't necessarily just the difference between the purchase price and the selling price. You can reduce the taxable gain even further by adding certain long-term improvement costs to your purchase price. Also note that the rules for a principal residence are somewhat different from the rules for other capital gains.