In their view, the government has made homeownership and its financing artificially cheap through the tax code and mortgage backers like Fannie Mae. All this has made homeowner subsidies, in particular the mortgage interest deduction, one of the rare tax breaks with critics across the political spectrum. Though it’s considered sacrosanct today, the mortgage interest deduction was created almost by accident in 1913. It is, of course, hard to gauge the long-term ramifications of a tax bill that is flying through Congress in hopes of allowing Republicans and the Trump administration to claim a major legislative victory. By allowing homeowners already benefiting from the existing mortgage interest deduction cap to keep it, the bill is likely to encourage people to stay in place a bit longer.

Source: New York Times December 16, 2017 16:40 UTC