In the contentious debate over whether to reduce or eliminate the home mortgage-interest tax deduction — or leave it alone — one fact has been virtually unchallenged: The popular write-off used by millions of U.S. homeowners costs the government massive amounts of revenue, somewhere in the range of $100 billion a year. [more]

The U.S. housing market stands to benefit from two tax provisions that were left alone in the hasty budget compromise that Congress reached yesterday, CNBC reported. In seeking to avert the fiscal cliff, federal lawmakers opted not to touch the mortgage-interest deduction and extended tax relief on mortgage debt forgiveness for a year. [more]