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Feb 27, 2013 3:07PM
The Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative at the Brookings Institution, invited 15 economists of different philosophies to submit proposals for rethinking the Federal Budget. In the eighth of the resulting papers Alan Viard, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, proposed to replace the mortgage interest deduction with a refundable credit to reduce the artificial incentive for the construction of high-end homes by better targeting the tax breaks for housing. Viard says current...
Feb 27, 2013 10:39AM
Pending home sales rose on both a monthly and an annual basis in January. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) which compiled the data said January was the 21 st consecutive month when its Pending Home Sales Index was higher than one year earlier. The Index increased 4.5 percent from 101.3 in December to 105.9 and was 9.5 percent above January 2012 when it was 96.7. The Index is a forward looking indicator based on contract signings for home purchases. The contract is generally expected...
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