Consumers overwhelmingly oppose any action by Congress to tamper with the mortgage interest tax deduction, according to a new nationwide poll issued by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

Nearly 80 percent of consumers support retaining federal tax incentives to promote homeownership, according to the survey.

"These poll results show strong national [consumer] support for keeping the mortgage interest deduction that cuts across gender, age, partisan, ideological, educational and regional lines," said Neil Newhouse, partner at Public Opinion Strategies, which conducted the survey. "Clearly, [consumers] have a very strong connection to the home mortgage interest deduction and are not likely to respond well to efforts to reduce or eliminate it. In fact, voters overwhelmingly say they would be less likely to vote for a candidate for Congress who supported either eliminating or reducing the home mortgage interest deduction."