New Report Shows Use of Mortgage Interest Deduction by State and MSA

A new report commissioned by the Pew Charitable Trusts uses 2010 IRS data to analyze how the mortgage interest deduction (MID) is distributed across the states. The report also examines MID data by Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) using 2007 IRS data made available at zip code level. This is the first ever MID analysis at this level of geography. The states with the highest percentages of tax filers who claim the MID are MD (36.8%), CT (34.3%), VA (33.2%), CO (32.8%), and MN (32.7%). The states with the lowest percentages of tax filers who claim the MID are WV (15%), ND (15%), SD (15.5%), MS (17.2%), and LA (17.8%). The average deduction per filer is highest in MD with $4,580 per filer and lowest in ND with $1,192. Two of the top five MSAs with the highest percentages of tax filers who claim the MID are in the DC area and another two are in the Minneapolis area. The Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, MD MSA (all DC suburbs) is the highest with 40.6% of tax filers claiming the MID. The lowest is Odessa, TX with 7.5%. Not surprisingly, four of the five MSAs with the highest average deduction per filer are in CA; the highest is the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA with an average deduction of $7,659. The lowest is Odessa, TX again, with an average deduction of $468. Read The Geographic Distribution of the Mortgage Interest Deduction at: http://bit.ly/13K9XlKThe full report covers shows some state data and data from selected MSAs. To find all the data, view the Data Appendix Tables.