Audit: Mortgage tax break costs Oregon $500 million annually, mostly helps wealthy white homeowners

Secretary of State Shemia Fagan on Tuesday, March 8. (Ron Cooper/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

Oregon government loses more than $500 million each year to a housing tax break that mostly helps wealthy white homeowners in urban areas, state auditors said Wednesday.

The mortgage interest deduction is the state’s largest housing subsidy, said Secretary of State Shemia Fagan. She contrasted that state tax policy to the scrutiny that follows every dollar the state spends to build affordable…