''Housing bust gives agencies a tax windfall''

From SFGate

............. ''people across the United States have seen their tax bills increase due to the housing bust. On federal tax returns, claims for the mortgage interest deduction dropped by 14 percent, from 2007 to 2009, IRS data show. For 2010, preliminary data indicate that use of the write-off fell an additional 7.2 percent.

The decline saved the U.S. government $13 billion to $26 billion from 2007 to 2010, estimates Andrew Hanson, an assistant professor of economics at Georgia State University who has researched the tax break. The shift "is not surprising, given what we know happened to the housing market," Hanson says.''

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