Insurance company profits rose under Obamacare. Nobody with a brain thinks those idiots with great teeth we elect could actually write legislation. Our elected officials are the Introvert Mafia [attorneys that failed in private practice] and they are concerned with almost nothing other than preserving their superiority. Lobbyists wrote it, lobbyists from the Nurses Associations, lobbyists from Big Pharma, Insurance lobbyists... they didn't even bother telling Obama what was in it. They let him stand up there and say we could keep our doctor, etc...
What next? California, a sanctuary state, defying Federal law no less, getting picked on by Republicans! Say it ain't so!
in part because they want to know if they are going to pursue for a deductible or get paid by medical or medicare or not get paid at all since millions of americans are still uninsured.
I've been in RE for 30+ years and I have NEVER seen a buyer make a decision based on the mortgage int write off...NEVER. "Oh shit Martha, we can't buy that house. The int write off isn't big enough"....bullshit! Canada doesn't allow it and they have higher home ownership than we do. It is nothing more than renters subsidizing owners. Owners that have enough income and deductions to itemize. Why oh why can't we get just make taxes about taxes and not about every single life choice? You want to have kids? Have 'em. Just don't expect ME to subsidize them through a "child credit". You want a house, go buy one, but don't expect ME to subsidize it by NOT getting the same tax break because I choose to rent. Same with earned income. Why should I subsidize some slacker? You want more money, EARN IT! The average America voter is like a mushroom...kept in the dark and fed shit.
In California and other high priced markets are first home and some second home buyers... buying the home of their dreams or the best home they can qualify for? Most buyers agents in Coastal California will tell you many of the buyers are really buying a mortgage payment. The find out what they qualify for and then they look at homes. Holding other factors steady... the amount people qualify for will go down if more of their income goes to taxes. I can also tell you... people in my income bracket frequently force themselves into higher mortgage payments just for the write off... That is once they drop the dave ramsey crap from their minds and adjust to living in expensive places. So, although I agree the deduction is very bad policy... If you take it away right now... it may start a short sale crises again. here is a good article on it. Eliminate it and I am pretty sure I will make a million extra dollars over the next 2 or 3 years. But, I feel bad for my neighbors and friends. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffre...-is-pure-rent-seeking-so-end-it/#1084b5b84b6e ... "For the moment, let’s assume this new study is correct. Who benefits from the current policy and what harm would be done if we eliminate the mortgage interest deduction? The beneficiaries of the mortgage interest deduction are clear: homebuilders, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and lenders all win thanks to the tax break encouraging people to pay and borrow more for their homes. Because people who itemize deductions on their taxes and borrow to buy a home face a lower effective cost for that borrowing, they are willing to pay more for a house and to borrow more to complete that purchase. This raises home prices and the income of everyone connected with the buying and selling of homes." If the mortgage interest deduction is eliminated those harmed will be the people no longer benefitting from a government-encouraged misallocation of resources to the housing sector plus all current homeowners. Homeowners were little effected by the policy while they were both buying and selling houses at artificially inflated prices, and would be similarly held harmless once a new policy was in place and fully established, but there is a transition problem—what economists call an adjustment cost. Anyone unlucky enough to own a house when the policy is changed, even if they don’t have a mortgage or don’t itemize their deductions, will be harmed because they bought at the higher prices encouraged by the tax break and will eventually sell at the lower prices that result from ending the deduction. Such a set of policy change victims, both highly organized special interests such as the mortgage industry, homebuilders, and real estate agents and the more amorphous group of tens of millions of homeowners, makes the politics of ending the tax break virtually impossible. Even though society is gaining nothing, the status quo is producing clear winners and a policy change will have clear losers. Thus, the only way to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction is very slowly. Funnily enough, such a gradual policy change has already been implicitly proposed. Speaker Ryan and the House Republicans’ Better Way Agenda includes in its tax reform proposals a call for doubling the standard deduction on personal income taxes. This will have the effect of greatly reducing the number of Americans who take advantage of the mortgage interest deduction because few people will be able to borrow enough money to benefit from itemizing their deductions. Yet, because some people will still take advantage of the tax break and those that don’t will have more disposable income thanks to their enlarged standard deduction, home prices are unlikely to decline much, if at all.
Again, I've never seen anyone take that into consideration in deciding how much house they can afford. Just to check I called a buddy of mine on the mortgage side. He said you qualify based on income and assets. MI deduction is not a factor in how much you qualify for.
I have seen people who have plenty of cash decide to get a mortgage simply for the purpose of getting the tax deduction. In fact many have financial advisors who urge them it is better to take out a mortgage than to pay for a house with all cash.