Limiting the homeowner mortgage interest deduction came up in two of the presidential debates, but specifics about who would be affected and how much they might lose in tax benefits were minimal. To put some rough numbers on the issue, here’s a quick primer on the mortgage interest deduction and related housing write-offs.

How big are they? Very big, which is why they have become such a tempting revenue-raising target for candidates seeking to reduce the massive federal deficit.  According to estimates from the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the mortgage interest deduction alone will “cost” the federal government $484.1 billion between fiscal 2010 and 2014 — $98.5 billion in 2013 and $106.8 billion in 2014. Write-offs by homeowners of local and state property taxes account for another $120.9 billion during the same five-year period. [more]

Pier 40

Pier 40 could be home to a new 600,000-square-foot housing development. The Villager reported that a new study focused on the best ways to enhance the economic outlook for the cash-strapped Hudson River Park proposes housing on the pier as a way to bring in some income and save the now-decaying pier. [more]

From left: David Paterson and Tom Duane

A group of local activists held a rally today, urging Governor David Paterson to sign a bill that would ensure people living with HIV/AIDS relying on rental assistance would pay no more than 30 percent of their income for housing. The bill, introduced by Assembly member Deborah Glick and State Senator Tom Duane, the latter of whom attended the rally, would affect all individuals enrolled in the HIV/AIDS Services Administration’s housing assistance program. Currently, some of the program’s enrollee’s pay upwards of 70 percent of their income toward their rent, according to pro-bill activists. Paterson vetoed the legislation in September, but had promised to reintroduce the bill at a latter date. Thus far, activists say, Paterson has failed to reintroduce the bill in his agenda. TRD

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Stan Humphries

Poor credit scores are becoming an increasingly difficult hurdle for potential homebuyers to overcome, according to real estate website Zillow.com, which says roughly a third of Americans currently have credit scores so low that they’re unlikely to qualify for a mortgage. While the declining credit scores — nearly 30 percent of Americans have a credit score of 620 or lower — could explain this, changing attitude toward home lending could also be at fault. Stan Humphries, chief economist with Zillow, said that the recession has changed many lenders’ mindsets regarding credit scores. “Four years ago, in the era of easy-to-get subprime loans, many borrowers with low scores did buy homes, which in turn helped contribute to a housing bubble,” Humphries said. “Today’s tighter credit is a predictable response by banks after the foreclosure crisis.” TRD

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Governor Paterson

Governor David Paterson has announced the consolidation of all state housing agencies into one, single organization known as the New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Under the new umbrella organization, the state housing officials will be divided into three categories: finance and development, housing preservation and community renewal. In addition to streamlining the state’s regulatory housing groups, Paterson said he made the decision to consolidate the agencies in response to the state’s $9 billion budget deficit. “[The new organization] will increase transparency and efficiencies and strengthen our ability to improve the quality of life from one end of New York to the other,” Paterson said. TRD

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Once seen as a rock solid wealth-building method, homeownership is
losing its cache among investors and economists in the wake of the
housing market crash, according to the New York Times. While many
investors once assumed that home values would appreciate — barring
unforeseen influences like neighborhood decline and natural disaster —
that logic has been turned on its head, according to Stan Humphries,
chief economist with real estate website Zillow.com. “There is no iron
law that real estate must appreciate,” Humphries said. “All those theories [that] advanced during the boom about why housing is special… didn’t hold up.” [NYT]

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The standard of living may be deteriorating in the Bronx, according to housing experts, as tensions mount between landlords and tenants in the economic downturn. Jonathan Levy, deputy director of the housing unit of Legal Service NYC-Bronx and Gregory Lobo-Jost, deputy director of the University Neighborhood Housing Program, joined Bronx Talk’s Gary Axelbank to talk about affordable housing, rent stabilization, foreclosures and the ever-fraught issue of over-development. Both Levy and Lobo-Jost agreed that housing conditions and tenant-landlord relations are currently some of the worst they’ve seen in their professional careers, and that as unemployment climbs in the borough, residents are spending a greater percentage of their income on housing.