Re: A solution?
Surely there would be some way for property taxes and mortgage interest to be automatically reported to the IRS though?
Banks are required to file a 1098 stating interest paid on a mortgage on a yearly basis.
Property tax, OTOH, is subject to every little taxing authority (usually counties) with varying degrees of incompetence. And the way government agencies work is they beat the dead horse for as long as they can. Then they contract with someone to write a shiny new system that may or may not be delivered, but is guaranteed to be expensive. If it does get delivered it will meet few of the contracted requirements and be overly complex, like the legacy system. Between the cost and disappointing outcomes, it will be a couple decades before anyone attempts to purchase a new system. Or maybe I'm just a little jaded when it comes to IT projects.
Mortgage insurance is deductible in an effort to make it possible for more people to own their own home.