Posts with the tax deduction tag

National, News, Opinion

Are Obama & Romney Avoiding Housing to Avoid Talking About Killing the Mortgage Interest Deduction?

Written by The Tim on . 50 Comments

There is one major political topic that has been mysteriously absent from both major presidential campaigns during this year’s presidential election season… housing. Nick Timiraos noted this in the Wall Street Journal in early September. Here we are in late October, four debates later, and nothing has really changed. Barely a peep about housing from […]

Features, Opinion

Running the Numbers on the Flat Homeowner Deduction

Written by The Tim on . 36 Comments

[Read Part 1: Proposal: Replace the Mortgage Interest Deduction with a Flat Homeowner Deduction] In the comments on the proposal I made yesterday, Doug asked a reasonable question: Have you figured out what the deduction would be if you did this, and made it deficit neutral? That would be an interesting exercise. Good question. Let’s […]

Features, Opinion

Proposal: Replace the Mortgage Interest Deduction with a Flat Homeowner Deduction

Written by The Tim on . 59 Comments

In our discussion on Sunday’s poll about whether government policy should be steering people into homebuying, I had an interesting idea that I thought was worth sharing with the whole class. The Problem There are numerous problems with the methods the government has used and is using to promote homebuying. One-time homebuyer tax credits just […]

Opinion

Good Ideas that Home Salespeople Hate

Written by The Tim on . 114 Comments

There are two good ideas that have been circulating recently that would help keep the housing market from experiencing another dangerous bubble: End (or greatly scale back) the mortgage interest tax deduction. Require at least a 20% down payment for purchases. Here’s a recent article that covers the arguments in favor of ending the deduction: […]

Features

“Tax Savings” Far Overshadowed by Interest Paid

Written by The Tim on . 21 Comments

This weekend Seattle Bubble favorite Steve Tytler fielded a question from a very confused homeowner in his real estate Q&A column in the Everett Herald. Couple’s dilemma: To rent out house or sell Here is a portion of the owner’s question. We were given a house valued at $250,000, which is paid for. We have […]