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It might be one of the most important policies in the U.S. economy, but the mortgage-interest deduction sounds esoteric to most people. Perhaps that’s because, for most people, it’s completely irrelevant.
Although about two-thirds of American households own a home, only one-quarter of them claim the deduction, which sometimes gets abbreviated to MID.
Since tax benefits are most useful for people with taxable income, U.S. wealth-creation policy is predominantly for people who already have wealth. These high-income households don’t consider their tax benefits to be a form of government policy at all. For example, 60 percent of people who claim the MID say they have never used any government program, ever. As a result, rich households can be skeptical of public-housing policies while benefiting from a $71 billion annual tax benefit which is, functionally, a public-housing policy for the rich. As Desmond writes,
a 15-story public housing tower and a mortgaged suburban home are both government-subsidized, but only one looks (and feels) that way.”