Thanks to the influence of the National Association of Realtors and others who value homeownership, there have been some positive agreements made related to real estate as the Senate and House work to put together a tax bill to send to the President. For example, both the House and Senate have agreed to maintain deductibility of state and local property taxes up to $10,000 and to maintain Section 1031 tax-deferred exchanges in their present form for real estate investments. These are both things that matter to those of us who own and invest in real estate.
We are still waiting to hear where the mortgage interest deduction will be set. The House has it at $500,000 in its version of the bill and the Senate set it at $1 million. This is one of the differences still being hashed out. There has been a concern that property prices could drop significantly if this deduction is reduced. There is a Yale professor who spoke on this yesterday who said he doesn't think that will impact prices as 'greatly as you would imagine." Hear more on that here on CNBC.
