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How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality

nytimes.com

11–20 of 222 posts

Re: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality

#11

I don't know of anyone who bases a home purchase decision on the mortgage interest deduction. Seriously location, school district, cost of home, time to commute, yard size, cost of HOA are all more important to everyone I know. In fact it has never come up in conversations about home purchases with my peer group.

It can be useful for small scale real estate developers who can use their home to get cheap capital.

Re: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality

#12
post #3

When I crunched the numbers for the mortgage interest deduction it really didn't seem that compelling. It replaces the standard deduction so the first 12,500$ in mortgage interest does nothing for you. After that it's just a minor reduction in taxable income and your tax burden is only reduced by a fraction of your mortgage interest. Not enough to cover the costs of maintaining a home and the tendency to consume more…

Sounds like we should increase it to make home ownership more attractive, resulting in greater civic engagement from the population ("skin in the game").

Civic engagement is just fine in other countries where there are much lower rates of home ownership.

Re: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality

#13

I don't know of anyone who bases a home purchase decision on the mortgage interest deduction. Seriously location, school district, cost of home, time to commute, yard size, cost of HOA are all more important to everyone I know. In fact it has never come up in conversations about home purchases with my peer group.

It definitely factors into my home ownership cost spreadsheet that I use when looking at houses. There's also a property tax deduction.

Re: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality

#14

When I crunched the numbers for the mortgage interest deduction it really didn't seem that compelling. It replaces the standard deduction so the first 12,500$ in mortgage interest does nothing for you. After that it's just a minor reduction in taxable income and your tax burden is only reduced by a fraction of your mortgage interest. Not enough to cover the costs of maintaining a home and the tendency to consume more…

The MID barely cancels out my property taxes. Imagine if your investment accounts had to pay 1% tax every year based on its current worth even if you didn't realize any profits.

Re: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality

#15

I don't know of anyone who bases a home purchase decision on the mortgage interest deduction. Seriously location, school district, cost of home, time to commute, yard size, cost of HOA are all more important to everyone I know. In fact it has never come up in conversations about home purchases with my peer group.

Agreed.

I've bought three houses in my lifetime and the MIB was never even in the conversation in any of those purchases.

Re: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality

#16

When I crunched the numbers for the mortgage interest deduction it really didn't seem that compelling. It replaces the standard deduction so the first 12,500$ in mortgage interest does nothing for you. After that it's just a minor reduction in taxable income and your tax burden is only reduced by a fraction of your mortgage interest. Not enough to cover the costs of maintaining a home and the tendency to consume more…

Except that there are other tax deductions you can add on top of the mortgage interest. Also, there is no taxes on capital gains on your home ( $250K for single and $500K for married ).

Home ownership is a great deal in terms of tax treatment.

Re: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality

#19

I don't know of anyone who bases a home purchase decision on the mortgage interest deduction. Seriously location, school district, cost of home, time to commute, yard size, cost of HOA are all more important to everyone I know. In fact it has never come up in conversations about home purchases with my peer group.

Everyone does. Mortgage, property tax, etc deductions can significantly lower your tax basis.

Re: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality

#20
post #3

When I crunched the numbers for the mortgage interest deduction it really didn't seem that compelling. It replaces the standard deduction so the first 12,500$ in mortgage interest does nothing for you. After that it's just a minor reduction in taxable income and your tax burden is only reduced by a fraction of your mortgage interest. Not enough to cover the costs of maintaining a home and the tendency to consume more…

Sounds like we should increase it to make home ownership more attractive, resulting in greater civic engagement from the population ("skin in the game").

I think you forgot the /s

Seriously. The global financial crisis of 2007-08 wasn't that long ago...

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