By Russ Wiles | The Republic
The presidential-election race has mostly steered clear of housing.
Sure, some of the candidates, namely Donald Trump, have bemoaned the gradual slide in the nation’s homeownership rate since it peaked a dozen years ago. But neither he nor Hillary Clinton has shown much interest in offering new tax proposals affecting homeowners directly.
The existing tax benefits are significant. They include deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes and an ability to exclude from taxes most or all profits from a primary-home sale. The candidates have delved into other tax matters. Some of the proposals so far, as they would affect individuals, involve issues such as basic tax rates (Trump), surcharges on the rich (Clinton), tax-code simplification (Trump) and changes in the treatment of capital gains (Clinton).
