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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (141995)	8/20/2008 10:21:53 AM
From: 10K a day	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

When is Hank Gonna Start buying Freddie and Fannie?

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (141995)	8/20/2008 11:46:53 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

Like I've been saying... Mortgage Interest Deduction Benefits Rich Much More Than Middle Class Commentary"-No More Housing Bubbles pbs.org Monday, August 18, 2008 JEFF YASTINE: Tonight's commentator has some thoughts on preventing the next housing bubble. She's Alice Rivlin, senior fellow at Brookings and former vice chair at the Federal Reserve. ALICE RIVLIN, SENIOR FELLOW, BROOKINGS: As we repair the damage from the bursting housing bubble, we need to focus on how to prevent the next one. Part of the answer should be converting the mortgage interest deduction to a credit. The tax provision that allows homeowners to deduct mortgage interest from their taxable income is the nation's biggest housing subsidy, a bizarre subsidy whose benefits go differentially to the well- healed. The higher your income, the higher your tax bracket and the more valuable the mortgage deduction is to you. Do higher income people merit extra help paying for housing? I don't think so. Along with low interest rates and lax regulation, the mortgage interest deduction fueled the housing bubble, especially the boom in expensive houses, which now glut the market. But don't we want to favor home ownership? Certainly, but we have over-invested in housing, especially high-end housing, compared with more productive assets. We should take this opportunity to scale back the mortgage interest deduction and convert it to a credit so that taxpayers at all income levels get the same tax benefit per dollar of mortgage interest paid. That's simple fairness. Moreover, it might encourage more productive investment and mitigate the next housing frenzy. I'm Alice Rivlin.