Fine Homes

Alvin Clavines asked:


In the past, most people imagine of a dream home as a single-family home that has a big back yard with white picket fence. But today’s real estate market provides more complicated and new options for home buyers. If you are thinking of buying a home, one alternative to purchasing a single-family home is to buy a townhome. Townhome living may be the right choice for you. Also know as a townhouse or a rowhouse, its structure is traditionally a multiple story home that is adjoined to other homes on one or more sides, and normally covers a small piece of land. But there is something special about townhomes.

Because this type of home is adjoined to another home on one or more sides, there is less exterior maintenance. You do not have to spend more money on dealing with your sides since it is already adjoined to another building, so you only have to take care of the front and back of the building. The area of the front and back yard may not be big; this will not need much yard work. If you are considering adding a deck or a patio onto the back of your townhome, it would not be a big task to complete since you have less yard to manage.

When it comes to security, you can rest assure that you are safe since neighbors are close by. It would be difficult for burglars break into your home without being noticed by the people living in your sides. The adjacency of townhomes provides protection to each other and it allows you to get help easily like when you forgot your keys in the house and need to make a phone call.

Typically, the townhome community amenities are supported by home owners association fees to provide and maintain facilities for pools, tennis courts, fitness centers and more. You can take full advantage of these community facilities as this could save you big amount of money at the gym, or provide you more fitness and entertainment choice than your budget would normally permit.

You may find stacked townhomes on top of one another, but these homes are more close to being called condos. Traditional townhomes give you the convenience of knowing that you have no neighbors above or below you. You will not have to worry about overhearing footsteps during your sleep time, and you do not have to be anxious on your own footsteps at night.

Another good thing about purchasing a townhome is you get more house for the money. On average, you will be able to afford more square footage in a townhome than you would in a single-family home. Although the actual property of your home occupies a small amount of space, your townhouse can be multiple stories. There are three, sometimes even four-story townhomes, and builders have come up with compact stairways and structured hallways to provide you the most footage possible. Townhome living allows you to have a much more convenient, open, and roomy living space than you could in another way manage.

Bob Schwartz, CRS,GRI, San Diego California real estate broker asked:


The American Dream is often paired with owning one’s own home.  For decades Legislator’s have protected that dream with allowing home owners to claim the mortgage interest paid on their homes as a tax deduction.  With a possible phase out of this deduction, could the dream fade?

“There are no cows more sacred in the tax code than the deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes. Together, they add up to at least the $ 75 billion annual subsidy for housing and Homeowners. ” The New York Times.

In 2002, 37.2 million taxpayers claimed the deduction, writing off $336.6 billion, or about $9,000 per taxpayer. Representing about 37% or so of itemized deductions, it was slightly more than itemized deductions for deductible state and local taxes, and twice as much in deductions as charitable donations.  Clearly, the mortgage deduction is important and worth a huge amount of money.

In 2005 it was estimated that:

* The mortgage interest deduction will cost the Treasury $72.6 billion, according to congressional estimates.

* The $250,000 and $500,000 tax-free exclusions of home sale profits for single sellers and joint filers, respectively, will cost $23 billion .

* Property tax write-offs cost $20 billion, and tax subsidies for local and state housing bond programs account for $1 billion.

When a congressional committee examined the distribution of homeowner benefits for 2004, it found that people earning $200,000 and more a year – just one-half of 1% of all homeowners filing for deductions – pocketed 22% of the $70.2 billion in write-offs in 2004.

In 2007, Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) unveiled a draft of his “carbon tax” legislative reform package. Part of this draft legislation was a phase out the mortgage interest deduction on large homes. The phase-out schedule for the mortgage interest write-off, beginning with houses of 3,000 square feet, which would lose 15 percent of their deductions, and ending with houses of 4,200 square feet and larger, which would receive no deductions at all.

Dingel said: “In order to address the issues of climate change, we must address the issue of consumption-we do that by making consumption more expensive.”

Naturally, with the real estate market bust, the Dingell package was shelved. Once the housing market recovers, lets’ say two years from now, it’s a very good bet the administration will be looking hard at ways to increase taxes to pay down the huge bailouts. The unusual financial troubles and the move to green, will be the perfect time to push through such legislation.  Unlike the Dingel proposal ,which was aimed at larger homes, the future legislation will most probably cover all mortgage interest deductions. To increase its’ chance at passage, it is a good bet it will be a phased in plan with deductions decreasing over a number of years.

To get the reversal of the sacred deduction started, President Obama’s impending budget proposes a cap on the mortgage interest rate deduction.  Couples earning $208,850 or more would loose the deduction. Where currently households at the 33% and 35% tax rates are allowed the deduction, Obama would reduce their deduction to only 28% of the value of those payments.  This is likely a first step to what seems to be a total elimination of mortgage tax deduction.  If (when) this passes, Obama will find it easier to lower the earning cap for the mortgage tax deduction, leading up to an even lesser amount in the future.  It seems on the horizon that the mortgage interest rate will be only for low income earners.