Tax bill effects on homeownership.

[Wesley Mouch]

It should be eliminated entirely. Or, at the very least, phased out for new purchases.

Think of it this way. Imagine you run a shoe store and the government gives everyone a $10 shoe subsidy. Guess what you are going to do to the price of shoes? Raise them by $10. That's what happens to mortgages. 10% federal home subsidy? 10% higher home prices. Most of the higher price tag gets skimmed off by the mortgage companies and real estate agents.

This isn't a partisan issue - every economist of every political persuasion who studies the effect comes to the same conclusion. Here's a planet money episode about it:

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2...liticians-hate

Yes. Yes.

Fine Planet Money article. [[They're pretty good most of the time.)

So one upon a time, I was doing my taxes. And never itemized. I scraped together my mortgage interest, medical expenses [[not enough), state and local taxes, and voila! I had enough itemized deductions to do better than the standard deduction. By about $25! Wow, was I disappointed.

The mortgage interest deduction wasn't worth more to me than a couple coffees from Family Donut.

There's probably nobody in Hamtramck where the mortgage interest deduction helps them get more savings than the standard deduction. Now if I'd only bought a house in Franklin...