Aid for Buyers

Aid for buyersFirst-time home buyers are offered refundable tax credits of up to $7,500 for homes bought between April 9, 2008, and April 1, 2009.

Real Estate Outlook: Housing Bill Approved
by Kenneth R. Harney
With home sales and prices down and unsold inventory up in many areas, the real estate market could use a jolt of good news -- and Congress just provided it.
The massive, 690-page housing bill just approved on Capitol Hill has plenty of mortgage-related provisions in it, but it also has an important stimulus program designed to jump-start housing sales: It's a tax credit, effective immediately, that could cut up to $7,500 off the federal tax return of anyone who buys a house before the end of next June, when it expires.
Buyers have to be first-time purchasers, or renters who haven't owned a house anytime in the past three years. The "credit" is actually more like an interest free loan, repayable over 15 years. Single taxpayers can only qualify for a $3,750 maximum credit. But it still puts thousands of after-tax dollars of incentives into home purchases -- money that wasn't there before.
Starting this week, hundreds of thousands of potential buyers who've been on the sidelines can purchase a new or resale house and qualify for the credit. The National Association of Realtors estimates that up to two million sales could be stimulated by the credit in the coming 11 months, and the National Association of Home Builders anticipates a "multiplier effect" in the move-up segment of the market.
From Realty Times July 31, 2008 Read the entire article at:
http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20080731_realestateoutlook.htm

Jim Lubinsky
Angela Williams
Jackie Cautela
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