It's ... actually a reasonable policy, in some way. It can be quite annoying in the USA when you (if single) have more capital gains than you get "for free" ($250k which sounds like a lot, but if you bought in CA 20 years ago and are now moving, that can get eaten up quickly - a $300k house in 2004 would be almost $500k today
from inflation alone) you pay tax.
Then if the house you bought with the proceeds drops in value and you have to sell, you can't claim a deduction for the capital loss.
Of course all capital gains taxes whatsoever have the hidden inflation problem, where you get taxed on the inflation caused by ...