{"id":12198,"date":"2010-06-10T13:06:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T20:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=12198"},"modified":"2010-06-10T13:21:52","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T20:21:52","slug":"if-the-national-association-of-realtors-were-to-back-the-repeal-of-the-mortgage-interest-tax-deduction-it-could-do-three-very-patriotic-things-it-could-reduce-the-debt-load-on-all-americans-help-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12198\/if-the-national-association-of-realtors-were-to-back-the-repeal-of-the-mortgage-interest-tax-deduction-it-could-do-three-very-patriotic-things-it-could-reduce-the-debt-load-on-all-americans-help-co\/","title":{"rendered":"If the National Association of Realtors were to back the repeal of the mortgage interest tax deduction, it could do three very patriotic things: It could reduce the debt load on all Americans, help consumers make wiser use of their money — and get itself off the dole!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had thought I had said my piece yesterday about the move to repeal the mortgage interest tax deduction as a means of reducing the federal deficit<\/a>, but today I feel I have not said enough.<\/p>\n

Here’s what I would add: The National Association of Realtors should lead the charge to rid the nation of the pestilential subsidy. Very far from being a good thing, it is an undiluted evil.<\/p>\n

How so? Two reasons. First, it rewards homeowners by raising taxes on everyone else. This is true of every sort of tax deduction, tax credit or direct subsidy, but the mortgage interest tax deduction is especially pernicious in that it tends to reward the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Frankly, any sort of governmental favoritism is vile, but the NAR is doubly vile in this instance, since poor people are being despoiled not even to benefit the rich, but to benefit Realtors themselves.<\/p>\n

Consider this, written in response to a defense of the tax deduction:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Defending mortgage interest deductibility (based on the current tax establishment) is very much in my favor as a consumer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the seen and the unseen<\/a>, classic Bastiat. You see a tax deduction and regard it as being to your immediate pecuniary advantage. You don’t see all the other taxes that are raised to make up for that deduction.<\/p>\n

Worse, you don’t see that the NAR is not seeking your interests but its own: The deduction causes you to value housing above other investments, contrary to market forces, which results in your buying a home when you could and probably should be making more productive use of your surplus income. The goal? Commissions for NAR members, not your interests at all.<\/p>\n

Still worse, you don’t see that the recession we are going into was caused, fundamentally, by overvaluing housing as a market good by means of tax deductions, credits, exclusions and deferrals. In five years you could be walking around shoeless, dining out of garbage dumpsters, but at least your mortgage interest will be tax-deductible.<\/p>\n

In other words: You are a consumer in your every economic transaction, not just when you are Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had thought I had said my piece yesterday about the move to repeal the mortgage interest tax deduction as a means of reducing the federal deficit, but today I feel I have not said enough. Here’s what I would add: The National Association of Realtors should lead the charge to rid the nation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29,5,30],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-group-therapy","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-supplanting-the-nar","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7171,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/7171\/what-if-they-reduced-a-tax-deduction-hardly-anybody-gets-if-youre-the-fib-spinning-pinocchio-at-the-national-association-of-realtors-your-whole-make-believe-world-just-collapsed\/","url_meta":{"origin":12198,"position":0},"title":"What if they reduced a tax deduction hardly anybody gets? If you\u2019re the the National Association of Realtors and you’ve been spinning lies for decades about mortgage interest deductibility, your whole make-believe world just collapsed\u2026","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Kicking this back to the top. It's news again. I wrote this post more than a year ago, but, per The Hill, the tax-deductibility of mortgage interest is back on the table:The popular tax break for mortgage interest, once considered untouchable, is falling under the scrutiny of policymakers and economic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10203,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10203\/the-net-effect-of-government-intrusions-in-the-real-estate-market-is-to-create-a-standing-wave-of-foreclosures-amid-steadily-declining-home-values\/","url_meta":{"origin":12198,"position":1},"title":"“The net effect of government intrusions in the real estate market is to create a standing wave of foreclosures amid steadily-declining home values”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This from my Arizona Republic real estate column: As I write this, the entire real estate industry is on tenterhooks, waiting to see if the $8,000 first-time home-buyers tax credit is going to be extended. It's not really a tax credit, it's a taxpayer-funded subsidy, a \"gift\" extracted by force\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5572,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/5572\/by-making-war-on-private-property-rights-the-national-association-of-realtors-is-making-war-on-everything-we-are-as-americans\/","url_meta":{"origin":12198,"position":2},"title":"By making war on private property rights, the National Association of Realtors is making war on everything we are as Americans","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm responding here to a comment from Dave Phillips, who is to be commended in advance for bearing up to the strain.I will invite President Gaylord to read and possibly respond if you promise to be a good doggy and engage in polite discussion (i.e., avoid inflamed rhetoric like \u201cRotarian\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14109,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14109\/lets-unleash-the-genius-of-free-markets-on-the-capital-of-the-american-people-simply-by-refusing-to-load-the-dice-in-favor-of-housing\/","url_meta":{"origin":12198,"position":3},"title":"“Let’s unleash the genius of free markets on the capital of the American people simply by refusing to load the dice in favor of housing.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"President Barrack Obama released his proposed 2012 budget yesterday. The jeers greeting this event, from all wavelengths of the political spectrum, suggest that, at long last, people have finally begun to take the measure of this pathetic little man-boy. Even so, there is at least one tax increase in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3820,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3820\/theres-more-to-the-mortgage-relief-bill-than-just-mortgage-relief\/","url_meta":{"origin":12198,"position":4},"title":"There’s more to the mortgage relief bill than just mortgage relief","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link). Notes for insiders: The legislative thumbprint of the National Association of Realtors is churn. The NAR is not necessarily for or against any legislation. Instead, their lobbyists will look for ways to introduce short-term incentives to churn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8522,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/8522\/no-more-free-lunch-understanding-the-national-association-of-realtors-all-the-way-down-to-your-bones\/","url_meta":{"origin":12198,"position":5},"title":"No more free lunch! Understanding the National Association of Realtors — all the way down to your bones…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael DiMella wrote the remarks quoted below in a comment, but I've extracted them and my responses to him into a separate post. The meta issue is this: Is the NAR a criminal conspiracy against consumers, and, whether or not it is, is there nothing else good about it? Michael\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12198"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12206,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198\/revisions\/12206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}