[quote=scaredycat]i am stunned at the number of people who do not know that there is a satndard deduction. educated people. as if there would be no deduction from your taxes if you did not itemize. the standard deduction is going to be greater than the itemizations ona lot of cheap houses! and when you run the nubers, add property tax — there is no tax savings![/quote]

Absolutely, but the houses we have been looking at are in the range where the property tax and interest are well above the standard deduction. In most parts of the country (the non-crazy parts, IMO), the mortgage deduction is a wash relative to the standard deduction. That’s not the case with many houses in San Diego.