Proposition 13 in California is blamed by prospective home buyers as being one of the reasons buying a house is so expensive. “Long-time homeowners aren’t paying their fair share.” What we rarely see is that income tax deductions for mortgage interest favor new home buyers. Taxes never make anything cheaper unless a tax “refund” is given for taxes that weren’t paid. Long-time homeowners will typically have much lower mortgages and thus much less opportunity, if any, to deduct their mortgage from their income taxes. Long-time homeowners bought their home at a lower price and thus a lower mortgage, and have also paid off a significant portion, possibly all, of their mortgage. With time, standard deductions grow and the mortgage interest decreases, the value of the mortgage deduction can…