GOP tax plan shouldn’t discourage home buyers

Your story (“GOP tax law derails some home buying plans,” Page 8C, March 21) indicates that the new tax plan will derail some home buyers. The example given is: a $911,900 home will lose $5,400 in deductions. It fails to mention that the same home will have an appreciation of $54,700 per year at 6 percent.

The rate of appreciation is very modest. The following example will illustrate the statement. For the past 40 years, I have always encouraged my clients to buy a home and stop delaying, worrying about interest rates and other objections. A modest home in Palo Alto that sold for $90,000 40 years ago now sells for around $3 million. At the rate of 6 percent compounded, that home should be worth only $925,000.

Buyers should not wait for favorable tax laws and interest rates because the appreciation rate is running like a bullet train. — Esmail Essabhoy, past president of the Palo Alto Board of Realtors