Comments on: Urban Planning Goals vs. Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction

By: ArroyoLover

ArroyoLover — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 18:47:21 +0000

Eliminating the mortgage interest tax deduction (MITD) only makes sense if Congress agrees to eliminate ALL tax subsidy credits (which I doubt will happen). For middle class earners with no children, there are now only two arenas in which they can claim significant tax relief: the MTID and small business expense profit/loss deduction. I don’t see new urbanists suggesting that we stop promoting new businesses. Why pick on real estate? There are plenty of urban homeowners (especially single women, now the largest group of home buyers nationwide according to the NAR)who purchase in part because of the benefit of the mortgage interest tax deduction. The assertion that MITD just encourages sprawl is disingenuous and not based upon the facts as to who is actually buying homes these days. Moreover, according to the 4/23/2011 NY Times article on new housing starts: ‘Builders and analysts say a long-term shift in behavior seems to be under way. Instead of wanting the biggest and the newest, even if it requires a long commute, buyers now demand something smaller, cheaper and, thanks to $4-a-gallon gas, as close to their jobs as possible. That often means buying a home out of foreclosure from a bank.’

By: Ryan Champlin

Ryan Champlin — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 21:23:16 +0000

Thanks for the comment! It seems to me that there are some good reasons to keep the deduction, at least for homes up to a certain value, but if I had a choice of getting rid of it or keeping it the way it is, I would scrap it.

By: Herb Champlin

Herb Champlin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 04:45:55 +0000

This is a tough one. But pretending to be a politition, wanting to listen to my constituents and do what’s best for the communities that I represent, I would be leaning more towards eliminating the deductions. Just from the minute amount of knowledge that I have accrued over the past few months, as well as listening to my son the environmental and societel planner and proponent of urbanism, I am getting the very strong feeling that the urbanist mindset and culture is catching on quite strongly.
After working one short afternoon with a SLC realtor, and listening to Ryan and him bantering back and forth about the cities and the home buyers expectations, based on their own experiences, it became quite clear that this movement is not just a short term phenomenon. Yes, there are still the suburban developements being built or expanded upon. But it is becoming very clear that the real value, both personaly and property wise, lies close to the city center, local transit routes, and frequented establishments.
As a responsible politition, I wouldn’t be able to deny this activity and would thus vote to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction through a phasing out over 5 years. This along with a gradual increase in the Social Security and Medicare age requirements and a small payroll tax increase to help suppliment the same, would be a plan that I could agree with, sereiously!
But I’m not a politician, and I’m a bit biased, because I don’t have a mortgage and I’m above the age for any SS phasing.
On gosh>>>>>>> my political aspirations are dead!!