How quickly should you pay off your home?

A recent study (March 2007) titled "The Tradeoff between Mortgage Prepayments andTax-Deferred Retirement Savings" found that many households face a trade off between paying off their mortgage sooner or investing their money in a tax deferred investment (i.e. 401k). 

From the research conducted by Gene Amrominy (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago), Jennifer Huangz (University of Texas at Austin) and Clemens Sialmx (University of Michigan) - it was shown that, under certain conditions, at least 38% of american households could benefit more financially from investing in a tax deferred investment account instead of prepaying their mortgage.

They found that a signficant proportion of households could benefit from a simple strategy that takes advantage of tax deductable mortgage interest payments and tax deferred retirement accounts.  If these households took advantage of this simple strategy, it could save american households 1.5 billion dollars per year.