I have long wondered why the US taxpayer has to subsidize the person with a million dollar mortgage. Sorry, but I don't think most would call that person middle class.
Nor do I think somebody making $200K is middle class. If somebody making $60K has a million dollar mortgage, they are in deep trouble and won't have the place for long regardless of any tax subsidies.
So many industries benefit from the housing boom. Appliances, lumber, shingles, cement, etc. We should be very careful when we trim this back or we could see so really bad results.
Gee, here's a radical idea - Why don't they subsidize the repeal of the AMT by cutting spending instead of punishing homeowners? I mean, WTF are these people thinking?
The problem is that this penalizes first time homebuyers out of the gate. Even those of us who live in modest homes will have their deduction reduced from 27% to 15%. For those of us in the early years of a 30-yr mortgage, only a sliver goes to paying down principle, and the tax refund goes a long way to cushioning the blow.
Maybe because interest INCOME is taxed?
The single most important thing we could do to reduce the deficit and national debt is to encourage people to save. Taxing interest and capital gainst discourages savings, big time. That's why the average economic idiot like you has $7,000 in credit card debt at 21% per annum. Stupid is as stupid does.
Plus, the person with the million dollar mortgage employed a lot of people in building the house that mortgage is attached to. When Congress passed a "luxury tax" on yachts, rich people quit buying yachts and thousands of blue collar workers in the yacht building industry became unemployed.
But go on hating rich people because they have more than you. Act like Karl Marx told you to. Go ahead and destroy the goose that laid the golden egg,
You're right! Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, you need at least $350-$400K to even approach middle class! A house worth less than $700,00 doesn't exist in this area except in the slums.
Dude, trust me, I'm middle class in the Bay Area. I drive an 12 year old car, my wife drives an 8 year old car, my wife stays home to take care of our three kids and we're expecting a 4th early next year. My ugly ranch house but in a safe neighborhood that's just over 2k square feet cost me 829k in 2003.
And I can't move due to my profession, my love of California and the presence of both sets of grandparents in the area.