Housing, Income Gap Study Deepens Tax Reform Debate

As the Trump administration moves forward with their tax reform agenda, the mortgage interest tax deduction has become a hotly debated topic. The National Association of Realtors, for example, has committed to save the benefit, that, they argue, encourages consumers to buy a home.

Apartment List researchers Andrew Woo and Chris Salviati released their study, Imbalance in Housing Aid: Mortgage Interest Deduction vs. Section 8, that examines tax relief provided to high-income versus low-income households (including the mortgage interest tax deduction and Section 8 housing), renters versus homeowners, and theorizing new dispersal methods for federal housing assistance. Their results highlighted higher federal spending on subsidizing homeowners than funding low-income rental programs, per The Washington Post.

The San Francisco-based company, which runs an apartment listings search engine, analyzed Internal Revenue Service and Housing and Urban Development data. It found a popular tax break, the mortgage interest deduction (MID), cost the federal government $71 billion in 2015, more than double the amount spent on Section 8 funding for low-income renters ($29.9 billion).

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