Sounds like we should increase it to make home ownership more attractive, resulting in greater civic engagement from the population ("skin in the game").
The financial crisis was the result of expansion of credit. What I suggest is a reduction in the tax burden of owning a home.
There are many valid reasons to be against my suggestion; the subprime crisis is not one of them.
EDIT: There was definitely some sarcasm in my suggestion. This is a hot button topic for a lot of progressives because the impact of being able to right off one's interest payments is viewed as regressive. I see arguments both ways.
Isn't this kind of what happened in the 2008 collapse?
Laws were loosened to allow more people to get into more risky loans to get homes. It incentivized a lot of people to take on mortgages they normally wouldn't qualify for.
I'm not talking about low income earners either. I had several friends who are upper middle class earners who suddenly purchased mansions on the lake, only to lose their house months later when the market collapsed. I also had other friends who suddenly realized the value of their homes went through the roof and took out two or three loans against that value, only to take it in the shorts when the market collapsed. Sure, the low income folks were hit pretty hard, but the middle and upper middle class folks got hoodwinked as well.
While I agree, it would help, it feels like its the same huge mess that we just came out of.
> Isn't this kind of what happened in the 2008 collapse?
Not at all.
The housing crisis resulted from credit expansion. Specifically credit was extended to people that should not have been able to take on risk. A secondary cause was the structure of the debt (long term risk with short term volatility).
I'm suggesting reduction in one's tax base based on interest paid for existing debt, not the creation of new debt.
Seriously. The global financial crisis of 2007-08 wasn't that long ago...