Mortgage & Home Equity Guides
Number-driven guides on the tax and cost questions that come up most often for homeowners with a mortgage. Every figure is calculated and its assumptions are stated.
Taxes and deductions
What a mortgage is actually worth on your return, and where the rules trip people up.
- Mortgage Interest Deduction by StateFederal rules set the floor. Your state's conformity, rate and limits decide the rest.
- Is a Home Equity Loan Tax Deductible?The rules changed in 2018. What still qualifies, and how to work out your actual deduction.
- Cash-Out Refinance: The Tax Side Nobody ExplainsThe cash isn't taxable income, but what you spend it on decides what stays deductible.
- Mortgage Points: What They Cost and When They Pay OffThe standard break-even understates the real one by ten months, because it assumes the cash would sit idle.
Lowering what you pay each month
The levers that exist today, and what each one really costs.
- How to Remove PMI and Lower Your Monthly PaymentYou don't have to wait for 20% equity to arrive on schedule. There's a faster route.
- Property Taxes and Your Mortgage Escrow, ExplainedWhy a fixed-rate payment goes up, and how to check your servicer's annual analysis.
- Assumable Mortgages: How to Take Over a 3% RateThe only one of these that's real today. The equity gap kills most of them, and two traps land on the seller.
Buying and selling
Policy watch
Proposals that would change what a mortgage costs. None of these exist yet — we track where each one stands.
- The 50-Year Mortgage: What It Would Actually Cost YouIt would cut $267 off a $400,000 payment and add $456,000 in interest.
- FHFA 50-Year Mortgage: Current Status and TimelineAnnounced on social media, contradicted internally within days, shelved within two months.
- Portable Mortgages: Could You Take Your Rate With You?Standard in the UK and Canada. The reason it doesn't exist here is the bond market.