Washington, DC – Yesterday the House of Representatives passed and today President Obama signed into law legislation that will extend the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit past the November 30th deadline to first-time homebuyers with a binding contract before April 30, 2010.
“Realtors and home buyers alike are reporting that the first time home buyer tax credit is working to revitalize the housing industry. In this economy it would be foolish to allow something that is working to simply expire,” said Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD). “I was please to help in the fight to extend the first time home buyer tax credit because when more first time buyers have an opportunity to enter the market the entire economy gets a shot in the arm.”
The bill will expand the homebuyer tax credit to more families, phasing out for individuals with income above $125,000 and for joint filers with income about $225,000 (the current law credit phases out for individuals with income starting at $75,000 and for joint filers with income starting at $150,000). It also creates a $6,500 credit available to homebuyers who have been in their current residence for five or more consecutive years out of the last eight years.
In late September Reps. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) and Travis Childers (D-MS) introduced The Tax Credit Extension for Homebuyers with a Loss Deduction Incentive Act (H.R. 3640), similar legislation to what was passed yesterday to help families buy and sell homes and spur growth and stability in the American housing market. Congressman Kratovil’s legislation was backed by the National Association of Realtors.
“In my short time here I have certainly learned that building consensus for good policy is how the Congress can gets things done on behalf of our constituents,” said Rep. Kratovil. “There was overwhelming support for this very popular tax break and I am pleased that we were able to create language that will extend it so that many more families can take advantage of it.”
The language was included in H.R. 3548, The Worker, Homeownership and Business Extension Act, by a vote of 403-12. House passage now sends the bill to the President’s desk for his signature. In addition to extending the tax credit the legislation also extends unemployment insurance for out of work Americans in all 50 states.
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7 comments:
The right thing to do. Obama 2012
The joke continues!
We are spending over $1,000,000,000 (thats a billion for you slower math folks) PER MONTH on this program.
Think about it like this...
1. People are buying more house than they can afford or worse; buying one they cant afford.
2. The prices of the lower end homes are artificially inflated. The seller gets more than they should and all the neighbors are paying for it!
3. Last I checked a billion a month would build a few schools we so desperately need but can never seem to afford.
well, now you will have more people paying property taxes that fund and build schools, looks like a win-win.
The government can't give you anything that they haven't taken away first. Problem with this is that they have taken it away from our grandchildren that haven't been born yet.
Stupid is as stupid does!
2:57 Anon
What? Not everyone falls under your classification in your post.
I am one of the homeowners who purchased a home in this time frame for this tax credit.
My husband and I had wanted a home for quite some time but could not find one in our price range that we really wanted. This was when the prices were through the roof.
We were not able and did not want to pay the prices that were being asked for even the small ranch homes.
We could have gone "no doc loan", "interest only loan", "balloon pmt. loan" or any of the other programs that were out there. But we are smarter than that.
We knew the fake bubble couldn't last forever and we would just wait until we could do it the RIGHT way, with a conventional loan once the market came back down to more realistic values.
I, for one, wanted to know what my payment was going to be for the term of the loan and not have to worry about what year it was going to double or more.
We found a home (an estate property) last fall that was in our price range and our mortgage wouldn't "choke" us every month. It took us almost 6 months to get in the home but we're in it now and are VERY happy to be homeowners. One of the best parts is that our mortgage is actually lower (tax and ins. included) than we were paying out in rent.
So, please, before you put ALL home buyers in this category of yours, please have a little respect for those of us who did it RIGHT!
We didn't do it FOR the tax credit, it just happened to be there at the time we purchased a home.
3:06 There isn't much new construction under the $125,000 price point. Perhaps someone else is paying the existing property tax :)
You lost you just haven't figured it out yet.
4:10 Congratulations on your home. I understand it is the American dream to own a home. All that being said, sorry but it is not my responsibility to help you buy it. Tax credits from Washington come from all tax payers. There is no such thing as "free". Why should all of us tax payers help you? There are plenty of wants such as schools, libraries, bridges, etc that the public can use.
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