Mortgage Interest Deduction: Housing Boon or Boondoggle?

With Congress expecting to slash more than $2 trillion in long-term spending as part of the debt-ceiling compromise, nothing is safe from the chopping block -- not least of all, that housing industry darling, the mortgage interest tax deduction.

Often hailed as a boon to the middle-class by its defenders, the MID has been around in some form or another for as long as Americans have itemized their tax deductions. But with an anticipated price tag of nearly $100 billion in 2012 and mounting criticism that the provision disproportionately benefits the rich, the controversial deduction may be on its last legs.