Eliminating the Home Mortgage Tax Deduction Essay

Eliminating the Home Mortgage Tax Deduction - Essay Example White argue that taxpayers were now allowed to deduct interest they pay on secured loan by qualified homes, either their main home or a second home. The loans in this case include first and second mortgages, credit’s home equity line and home equity loans. White (1) argues that recreational vehicles and even boats may also qualify as home in case they have cooking sleeping and toilet facilities. White notes that millions of US homeowners depend on the Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction as a way of reducing their true cost of homeownership and have more disposable income. This interest is filed on form 1040 of schedule A accompanied with other itemized deductions such as medical expenses, real estate property tax and donations. In this case, taxpayers are expected to fill in Schedule A, to determine if their itemized deductions exceed the standard. If this is proved so, then taxpayers will save more money based on their taxes by itemizing. Over the past years, many issues and cont roversies surrounding Home Mortgage Tax Deduction have arisen as to whether or not it should be scraped. Many economists consider it a waste of money due to concern about the federal budget deficit (Perez 1). They argue that Home Mortgage Tax Deduction does very little to assist in lowering income homeowners make the changeover from renters to owners. These economists say that Home Mortgage Tax Deduction only encourage upper income buyers to buy big homes to take bigger mortgages a view which I also concur with. This paper will discuss why Home Mortgage Tax Deduction should be scraped as a way of cutting the budget. History of the residential housing market Muth and Goodman (1) argue that housing is the most precious and unique commodity. In US for instance, about one-seventh of all personal consumption expenditures are on housing exclusive of other household operations and furnishing. They notes that residential real estate accounts for more than half of the US fixed capital stock and about one-quarter of the country’s gross lending investments are made up of construction of residential estates. Mortgage lending has however varied for one-quarter to one-fifth of all funds raised by Americas credit markets. United States is one country that has faced economic housing bubbles over the past few years affecting many parts of the countries housing market. For instance, the prices of housing peaked at the beginning of 2006 with a decline towards 2007 reaching its low recently in this year. For instance, at around December 2008, the home price index of Case-Shiller reported the largest drop in prices in America’s history. It is argued that increased rates of foreclosure between 2006 and 2007 among homeowners in US is what led to the crisis that hit the country in August 2008 for credit, subprime, mortgage, hedge funds. Leader of the realty and mortgage industries Economy Watch (1) notes that real estate industry emerged as one of the major industries i n the united states over the past few years. It argues that the housing bubble witnessed in Florida, California, and Michigan, and New York brought with it major changes in real estate in US. The housing bubble was the result of an increase in valuation of real estate in the US domestic territory. Economy Watch reports that mortgage lenders, commercial banks and other financial