Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended and Improved
Friday, November 6th, 2009Home Buyer Tax Credit Extended and Improved
Under the housing program, people seeking to own a home for the first time in three years would receive an $8,000 tax credit if they sign a contract by April 30 and close on it by June 30. Current homeowners who are buying a new primary residence would be eligible for a $6,500 tax credit starting Dec. 1 if they owned their home for five consecutive years in the previous eight.
The timing is more lenient for military families who have been deployed overseas for 90 days or more in 2008 or 2009. They would have until April 30, 2011 to sign a contract.
But the measure limits the purchase price of the home to $800,000. It also imposes income caps so that people who make more than $125,000 annually and couples who make more than $225,000 would not be eligible for a refund. Anyone who collects the tax credit but sells their home within three years of buying it must return the refund.
The program is estimated to cost $10.8 billion.
The passage of the tax credit provision was a huge win for the real estate industry, which has been lobbying aggressively to extend and expand the program. They say the tax credit has helped boost sales and clear out a glut of lower-priced homes, especially foreclosures, and that ending it would be a blow to the housing market’s recovery.
This is good news for the potential home buyers here in New Jersey who were hoping to purchase a home which in most cases you would need more like $80,000 to $180,000 in come to afford. Under the old program only one of the home buyers I worked with this last year qualified income wise. Most of the buyers I worked with were not above the limits by large amounts, but they were over the limits just the same.
Purchasing a home in Morris, Essex, Union, Somerset, or Passaic Counties of Northern New Jersey
Thinking of purchasing a home in Morris, Essex, Union, Somerset, or Passaic Counties of Northern New Jersey? Visit my North and Central Jersey MLS Home Search webpage.
The spring of 2010 has been looking better then the spring of 2009 for the last month. At least the business that I will be doing. Perhaps I am different than other Realtors, and I think I am, but normally I am not working with January and Feburary home buyers until December or January. This year I am working with them now.
Cheers,
Jim
James Boyer
New Jersey Realtor
RE/MAX Properties Unlimited
973-539-6300 Office
973-647-0253 Direct