Eliminating the Home Mortgage Deduction
San Diego home for sale
Since being put in office, the Obama administration has been putting out feelers about possibly reducing and/or limiting the home mortgage interest deduction. Now after unbridled deficit spending, the administration is once again looking at the home mortgage interest deduction.
Rather than directly taking blame for reducing or eliminating this wildly popular subsidy, Obama appointed a panel to look into ways of cutting the deficit. To say this panel was bipartisan would be a stretch, as few of its members were conservative thinkers. What better way to eliminate a popular deduction than by shifting the blame to some bipartisan commission’s recommendation?
In a recent small poll, five out of the eight professors/economists thought that reducing or eliminating the home mortgage deduction would be a good way to cut the deficit. Read more 
Pending Sales of Existing Homes
real estate market
Pending sales of U.S. existing houses jumped by a record 10 percent in October in three of four regions tracked. Three of four U.S. regions saw an increase, including gains of 27 percent in the Midwest, 20 percent in the Northeast and 7.1 percent in the South. But, purchases fell 0.4 percent here in the West.
Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, said: “The housing market clearly is in a recovery phase and will be uneven at times, but the improving job market and consequential boost to household formation will help the recovery process going into 2011, but activity needs to improve further to reach healthy, sustainable levels.”
Also, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book report “Housing markets remain depressed, with several Districts reporting further weakening during the past six weeks.”
So, the real question is will the increasing home sales in other area of the country, pull up home sales here in the West.
California short sales
San Diego County Home Prices
San Diego home prices
San Diego County home prices fell in September for the second month after 15 consecutive monthly increases, according to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index report.
The resale home value of a typical house fell 1 percent in September from August. The value had dropped 0.6 percent in August from July.
However, September’s home price was still 5 percent above that of a year ago, according to the index, which reports home prices for 20 cities and the nation as a whole.
San Diego County houses priced under $314,451 slipped 0.9 percent from August; houses priced from $314,451 to $474,176 dropped 2 percent in value; while those priced above $474,176 rose 0.5 percent in value.
The national quarterly index, which measures home prices in the nine U.S. census regions, dropped 2 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter.
“While housing prices are still above their spring 2009 lows, the end of the tax incentives and still active foreclosures appear to be weighing down the market,” the monthly report stated.