The 2-out-of-five-year rule states that you must have both owned and lived in your home for a minimum of two out of the last five years before the date of sale. However, these two years don’t have to be consecutive, and you don’t have to live there on the date of the sale. You can exclude this amount each time you sell your home, but you can only claim this exclusion once every two years. Also, the ownership and occupancy periods don’t have to coincide.