Interesting graphs and charts department

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by glatt

So here's a question. Why can't you deduct rent from your income taxes the way you can deduct mortgage interest payments? Seems like the poor get a double whammy there.

Because every rental does still have an owner, and that owner is deducting the mortgage interest from his taxes. So at a minimum, you'd have double deductions on the same house. But what would also then happen is you'd have people renting their own houses to themselves, or renting it to their spouse filing separately or whatever, so they could take the deduction twice.

The trick is to always look at everything from a scumbag mindset. Fraud is easy if you're looking for ways to do it.

Originally Posted by glatt

I was nervous that our mortgage was going to be more than what we were paying in rent at the time, but our agent kept telling us that rents keep going up, but the mortgage payment stays the same. Turns out he was absolutely right.

It's kind of embarrassing. I pay less for housing than some of the kids right out of college coming to work here.

What about your property taxes? Surely those have gone up over the years, probably at a rate similar to the amount rent has gone up? At this point my dad's property taxes are far, far higher than the mortgage on his house, and when he's ready to retire he'll have no choice but to sell the house because the neighborhood has gotten too nice for him to keep paying the property taxes on it.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

What about your property taxes? Surely those have gone up over the years, probably at a rate similar to the amount rent has gone up? At this point my dad's property taxes are far, far higher than the mortgage on his house.

Yeah, the taxes keep going up. But while there was a huge jump during the real estate boom a decade or so ago, they have stayed pretty steady over the last decade.

[pastortoy]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

At this point my dad's property taxes are far, far higher than the mortgage on his house, and when he's ready to retire he'll have no choice but to sell the house because the neighborhood has gotten too nice for him to keep paying the property taxes on it.

How can you ever "own" a house if you have to keep up payments to the government for it? You never really have it free and clear. They call this the American dream?