Learning to Love Your Home Loan.

The article discusses various ways in which U.S. consumers can make their mortgages more valuable to them. Relatively affluent homeowners can reduce their taxes by holding a mortgage that represents a large fraction of their home's value, and deducting the interest expense. The same strategy can reduce the impact of the alternative minimum tax (AMT). Those who are certain they will move within four or five years may benefit from adjustable-rate mortgages. Interest payments on home-equity loans of as much as $100,000 are tax deductible.