[avn2109]

The point is to incentivize the populace to take on stable obligations, the proverbial two kids and a mortgage.

A stable, indebted population is a governable and docile population. Somewhere there's a great quote about how "any man with a cottage of his own and a yard will never be a revolutionary, he's too busy" but I can't find it right now.

[humanrebar]

Home ownership can also tie people down to a location when they should be considering relocating to places with more demands for their skills.

[aminok]

This is a typical unintended consequence of top-down economic planning. It turns out cookie cutter solutions imposed by fiat reduce people's welfare.

[tdaltonc]

A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.

That's a good reason to have the mortgage interest deduction. The real reason is that home owners vote, and promising them money is a good way to get them to vote for you.

[digi_owl]

More succinctly, homeowners do not riot.

Picked it up from a talk by David Harvey, but not sure where he got it from.