Mortgage Interest

[Taxman]

A client has three houses all with debt under 1,000,000. One of the houses is the clients primary residence with annual mortgage intrerest of $9,000 the 2nd house was purchased 10 years ago and has annual mortgage interest of $10,000 and the third house was purchased three years ago with $16,000 of annual mortgage interest. I know you can only deduct mortgage interest on the primary and one other house, can you forgo the mortgage interest deduction on the second house and deduct the interest on the third house instead?

[Larmil]

A client has three houses all with debt under 1,000,000. One of the houses is the clients primary residence with annual mortgage intrerest of $9,000 the 2nd house was purchased 10 years ago and has annual mortgage interest of $10,000 and the third house was purchased three years ago with $16,000 of annual mortgage interest. I know you can only deduct mortgage interest on the primary and one other house, can you forgo the mortgage interest deduction on the second house and deduct the interest on the third house instead?

Yes, you may designate any other home you own as the second home.