Thirdfrt, Just for your information, The basic inheritance, is the cost mom paid for it and the money you received for the house, the difference is technically your capital gain, minus all fees to sell it. Ex- mom paid 5,000.00 you sold for 100,000 and had 6,000 in fees to sell the home. Technically, you made 89,000.00 on the property. I would consult a tax professional for read up online at the irs website on inheritance and capital gain. I don't think you would pay any capital gain on the house only because it was an inheritance and depending on the amount of money, which is small, you probably don't have any tax on it. You can't claim a loss on a situation where you can't prove you actually lost money by selling the property, which you didn't, because you didn't pay for the property and it has accumulated some value since your mom bought it.

"herwise, they are just creating a cost with no clear benefit to consumers. A few select groups might benefit, but overall, we suffer." Who defines "consumers"? The largest benefit of the mortgage deduction still goes to the middle class. The bottom edge may not get a large benefit, and the upper edge may not 'need' the benefit. These are artifacts of how the deduction plasy ageist the standard deduction. At the low end the standard deduction is better than a low deduction, at the high end the deduction has less import since other methods of reducing tax liability are available. If a change in the overall preference for ownership over renting is the goal, that would create different incentives (and tax rules to drive the goal).

Timely subject. Our neighborhood just received our property tax assessments for 2016, payable in 2017. Our property taxes have gone up 45%. Our home values have not. We had a refi appraisal within the last year & our home value was less than the current property taxes, prior to this increase. A 45% increase & our taxes are already high. Illinois is number 50, of 50 states, in public pension debt. In the recent past, the federal government has given Illinois stimulus money for education. The majority of that money has NOT gone to schools & students - it has paid for pension debt. We're going to need another bailout from the states that have been fiscally responsible. Edit: We will be appealing - we do every year. The first time we used an attorney, whose fee was 50% of of the tax savings. Then we started doing it ourselves. We have the choice to appeal based on "uniformity" or "overvaluation." "Uniformity" involves collecting & submitting comps of other comparable homes. "Overvaluation" is submitting a home appraisal with a date of Jan 1, 2016 so we get tax credit for the entire year. We've had better results with the home appraisal, overvaluation method. Everyone in our neighborhood's home value has jumped up by between $200,000 - $400,000, according to the taxing authority. I'd have no problem with it if our home value had truly increased, but it hasn't.

I like how Prince Charles described his "fashion icon" status re Esquire magazine. He said, "Charles himself acknowledged his accidental status as a fashion icon at the launch party of London Collections: Men fashion week at St James's Palace in 2012. "I have lurched from being the best-dressed man to being the worst-dressed man," he said. "Meanwhile, I have gone on — like a stopped clock — and my time comes around every 25 years." I rather think I like that approach. My own fashion style is that, as is my house. The key is to never be "dated" by one's style - to choose what is right and stick to it. No avocado green appliances, no micro mosaic backsplash, no grey-everything, no Tuscan bathrooms or kitchens. If one sticks with basic good taste that is appropriate to the house and to oneself, it's always going to look nice, even if not trendy. But who the heck wants trendy? I certainly do not! As for my gray kitchen: well, that trend has not yet hit Louisville so I may be in luck! I didn't have my kitchen painted gray because it was a trendy, not look; I did it as it goes with the adjoining (not open) rooms and white did not, and I prefer a painted kitchen. But if what Mark Twain said about Kentucky is true "I want to be in Kentucky when the end of the world comes, because they are always 20 years behind.", I think I'm in luck as I certainly won't be around by the time it actually becomes a trend here!