[lookout123]

A family who pays $12,000 in mortgage interest each year on a $80,000 family income would probably say that$2-2,500 really makes a big difference to their bottom line. Couldn't they survive without it? Probably but we've got a lot of empty houses and homes underwater right now. I think keeping an incentive on homeownership in place would be a positive. Over the long term I could see phasing it out to encourage more home owners vs those who carry mortgages for life, but the country just isn't there right now.

Griff, I believe the unnatural pressure to buy came from our government telling us everyone should be a homeowner and then dropping and keeping interest rates far too low for far too long. That created a mindset that houses were not homes but merely short term investments with 70-80% profits every two years. Not good.