The mortgage interest deduction rarely influences the decision to buy a home.

Evidence

The only category where research suggests the deduction might impact the decision to buy is limited to higher-income households in markets where the supply is very sensitive to price increases (elastic supply); see Council of Economic Advisers, Evaluating the Anticipated Effects of Changes to the Mortgage Interest Deduction, Nov. 5, 2017, https://www.whitehouse.gov/​sites/​whitehouse.gov/​files/​images/​Effects of Changes to the Mortgage Interest Deduction FINAL.pdf [inactive]. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 1323

Categorization

• QUESTION: This undercuts the standard defense of the deduction as a homeownership incentive — worth checking whether this CEA finding is widely contested.