If you are among the more than 75 million Americans who own their home, or the millions more who hope to someday achieve the American dream of homeownership, then you will want to tell your candidates where you stand on critical housing issues before casting your ballot this fall.

National policy has acknowledged the importance of the home in American family life for almost a century, yet today, homeownership is under attack.

Legislative and regulatory proposals that would greatly harm home owners, home buyers, the housing market and the nation’s economy are under consideration by government policymakers. These include ongoing threats to the mortgage interest deduction, instituting a standard 20 percent downpayment on home loans, and ending the federal backstop for housing, which would make the 30-year mortgage less accessible and more expensive.

The stakes are enormous. The decisions the politicians who are elected to office this year make on these proposals could not only strip away homeownership’s priority status and obstruct the economy’s ability to recover, but also reverse the housing policies that created a thriving middle class and contributed to a century of economic progress.