Cheers to Renters! Tax Reform Benefits to Renters

[JustGettingStarted1980]

So, as I've read in many publications, it appears that the proposed tax legislation is going to be very unfavorable to people who currently own homes. A lot of renters who previously never itemized, however, stand to benefit from the doubling of the standard deduction.

Any thoughts and input from the MMM community?

I find that this would be fairly helpful EARLY ON in the path to FIRE, but I'm not so sure it would be harmful to people late in the game and approaching FIRE already, especially as Real Estate has been known to mostly appreciate with inflation only. Taking away incentives to home ownership, in my opinion, may very well keep people who don't need to buy homes from unnecessarily buying them for stupid reasons.

Whatcha think?

JGS

P.S. I own a home, bought because my wife told me we had to buy one, and I couldn't put it off any longer after a hardfought delay of 5 years :)
-financially, I'm pretty far ahead after purchasing vs investment, despite the run-up in stocks over the last 8 years

[ixtap]

Except that it isn't actually doubling the standard deduction because they are also eliminating the standard exemption.

[walkwalkwalk]

Still up 2k or so I believe for single filers

[alexpkeaton]

It seems fairer in that respect for sure. I own and have a large mortgage and benefit more than most from the mortgage interest deduction. It may just be worth it for me to itemize still, but whereas previously I'd blow past the standard deduction a few times over, now I might only clear it by like $1,000. This is mainly due to the loss of the SALT deduction, but the knock-on effect is that the mortgage deduction is worth a lot less to me.