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Personal residences do not qualify for 1031 Exchanges. Personal residences have a different set of rules that are very favorable to taxpayers.
The gain resulting from the sale of your personal residence will, in most cases, not be taxable if you have  owned and lived in the residence for two of the last five years before the sale. The rules allow married taxpayers to exclude up to $500,000 of gain on each sale while unmarried individuals may exclude up to $250,000 per sale. You can use the exclusion over and over again, but you can only take this exclusion once every two years.
The law also allows for a pro-ration of the exclusion amounts (based on length of ownership) when you fail to meet the two-year rule due to changes in employment, health reasons, or other unforeseen circumstances.
Very often, sales involve the sale of a personal residence and business use property in the same transaction (like sale of a family farm). The allocation of the sales price between the personal residence and the business use portion becomes very important in these transactions. The combination of the personal residence gain exclusion rules and 1031 Exchange rules can help you avoid/defer all of the tax on the sale. You should seek advice from someone that fully understands these rules and the effects of different methods of allocations on the proposed transaction.
NOTE: You may have tax consequences from the sale of your personal residence if you have used a portion of the residence for business use (i.e. office in the home). If the tax consequences are substantial, you can use a 1031 Exchange to defer the tax on the business portion.
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