: If mortgage payments are deductible, how much of my income is left over each month after the mortgage I'm currently renting and thinking of buying a house. Say I make 8k/mo. After rent (1000) and taxes (2000) I'm left with

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In the US, mortgage payments are not deductible. What is deductible is the mortgage interest (to a limit). That, as well, is not deductible unconditionally, but rather as part of your itemized deductions on Schedule A of your yearly tax return.

So if you're married and have a standard deduction of 600 a year, live in a state with no state income tax, and your property tax and the mortgage interest are less than your standard deduction - you will not be getting any tax benefit whatsoever. That is, in fact, the case for many, if not majority, of the US mortgage payers.

So in order to get a proper estimate, you need to take into account all the aspects of your tax calculations, which are by nature quite personal, and simulate the changes with the mortgage interest deduction. Most tax preparation software will allow you creating multiple files, so you can run the numbers for different scenarios.

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A 0K mortgage at 4.5% is 33, right near the 00 in your example. Interest the first year would be less than K, and your tax benefit (taking littleadv's answer into account, of course) would be 00, max.

The tax benefit is the least of the reasons to get a mortgage. On your hypothetical 0K income, and too-high mortgage, a 00 benefit is nothing. If one needs this tax benefit to make the numbers work, they are budgeted too tightly.

If you are considering trading a 00 rent for a 0K mortgage with a 00 payment, I'd look very carefully at the numbers. Search this board for the associated expenses of homeownership.