Tax Reform Shouldn't Harm Homeowners

Homeownership is the foundation of the American economy, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said at a forum on June 1.

Unfortunately, that sentiment is not reflected in tax reform proposals being pushed in Washington today.

On June 24, Congressional Republicans released a of comprehensive tax reform “blueprint” that would penalize most homeowners with a tax hike and remove incentives to homeownership that have existed for more than a century.

Realtors® are on high alert, focused on defeating any policy changes that would hurt homeowners.

“This proposal recommends a backdoor elimination of the mortgage interest deduction for all but the top 5 percent who would still itemize their deductions,” said National Association of Realtors® (NAR) President William E. Brown.

No bill has been introduced yet, but the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), commissioned by NAR, evaluated a tax reform plan modeled on the “blueprint.”

PWC’s study concluded that home-owning families with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 would face average tax hikes of $815 in the year after enactment, while non-homeowners in the same income range would enjoy average annual tax cuts of $516. Further, home prices nationwide in the short run would fall by 10.2 percent.

The blueprint recommends cutting all but two deductions — for mortgage interest and charitable deductions — and doubling the standard deduction. These changes would make the mortgage interest deduction (MID) useless for nearly all middle-income homeowners.

Homeowners nationwide already pay 83 percent of all federal income taxes; they would pay an even bigger share under the proposed reform.

NAR has released an interactive map tool showing how much homeowners currently benefit from the MID, sorted by congressional district. For example, in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District — which includes portions of Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Berks and Lancaster counties — 59 percent of homeowners claim the MID in 2015, cutting an average of $8,427 from their taxable income in 2015.  

At that HUD forum in June, kicking off National Homeownership Month, Sec. Carson also said: "The importance of homeownership is apparent to all of us … security, certainty, safety, wealth creation, a path forward, self-sufficiency, a place to live with loved ones, to raise our families, the location of our neighborhood.”

Realtors® agree. And we support sensible tax reform, but we will fight hard against any policy that would harm homeowners.

Image: HUD  Instagram