61–70 of 222 posts
Removing the MID would make middle-to-upper-middle-class people poorer, and so reduce inequality that way, but would it help poor people at all? The net monthly cost of housing would stay the same, just shift the proportion of your payment that goes to the government vs the bank. It's true that it's regressive, but I'm skeptical that's a huge factor. I think it would just help landlords, who would retain the ability…
So this article advocates for the removal of the mortgage interest tax deduction, because subsidizing home ownership leads to a larger economic divide between owners and renters. As a renter, I appreciate the intent, and I also appreciate any measure to simplify the tax code. That said, I also see compelling arguments in the deduction's favor. The sad truth is that most Americans are terrible at saving and in very po…
So this article advocates for the removal of the mortgage interest tax deduction, because subsidizing home ownership leads to a larger economic divide between owners and renters. As a renter, I appreciate the intent, and I also appreciate any measure to simplify the tax code. That said, I also see compelling arguments in the deduction's favor. The sad truth is that most Americans are terrible at saving and in very po…
Worse it promotes moving to areas with the maximum possible jobs which destroys smaller towns and city's while creating even worse congestion.
Except that if you're in an increasing market it can push the sale price up.
A fetish for home ownership also screws up labor force mobility and reduces the granularity of variations in cost of living (some of which is discussed here). We'd be better off if large, publicly traded corporations owned most of the housing stock and provided it on long term lease (which is almost the situation today, but in the most complicated fashion possible). Then nobody would be "tied to the land".
So this article advocates for the removal of the mortgage interest tax deduction, because subsidizing home ownership leads to a larger economic divide between owners and renters. As a renter, I appreciate the intent, and I also appreciate any measure to simplify the tax code. That said, I also see compelling arguments in the deduction's favor. The sad truth is that most Americans are terrible at saving and in very po…
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.
Maintaining a relatively constant credit card debt (which is what it usually meant by "relying on credit cards" for routine purchases) is often more of a financial literacy problem than an income problem. It's obviously harder to get out of this trap on a low income, but if you're servicing your debt -- and if you're living off of credit cards long-term you have to be -- then your average income actually matches your average expenditures, including credit card interest charges. Someone in that situation would be so much better off if they could just pull together the few $1000's necessary to pay off the debt, and then start slowly accumulating savings from the money that would otherwise go towards interest payments. Unfortunately, the people I know who live on credit card debt seem willing to spend any small windfall that comes their way immediately, instead of using it to pay down those high-interest loans and start saving.
I have a brother-in-law who's in this situation. He makes $90k and has no dependents, but seems to have constant credit card debt that fluctuates between $10-$20k. That's an extra $1500-$3000 free and clear he could have every year by just paying off his cards and pocketing those interest payments, but for whatever reason he sees things differently and is totally content to carry that balance indefinitely.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It might make more sense to kill the tax break on properties north of $1m and shift that to relief for renters under a certain income threshold. You'd leave in place the break for the majority of middle-income wealth builders, close yet another loophole for the wealthy, and enrich lower income renters. It would never ever happen with our current political climate (money is influence), but I feel like it would make se…
Interest is only deductible on the first $1m of a loan already.
So this article advocates for the removal of the mortgage interest tax deduction, because subsidizing home ownership leads to a larger economic divide between owners and renters. As a renter, I appreciate the intent, and I also appreciate any measure to simplify the tax code. That said, I also see compelling arguments in the deduction's favor. The sad truth is that most Americans are terrible at saving and in very po…
It might make more sense to kill the tax break on properties north of $1m and shift that to relief for renters under a certain income threshold. You'd leave in place the break for the majority of middle-income wealth builders, close yet another loophole for the wealthy, and enrich lower income renters. It would never ever happen with our current political climate (money is influence), but I feel like it would make se…