Home Buyer Credit: Clock Ticking On Tax Credit For First-Time Buyers

washingtonpost.com:

First-time home buyers are scrambling to take advantage of an $8,000 tax credit set to expire in coming weeks, while Congress considers whether to extend the program or risk removing what may be one of the few supports underpinning the housing market.

Data released Thursday show how delicate the housing market is these days. Sales of existing homes unexpectedly dipped 2.7 percent in August from July after four months of steady gains, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Read the whole story: washingtonpost.com

Comments

[SaneBull]

Yay stocks surging on Wall Street. Lets forget about high unemployment, wall street greed & corruption, and heath care reform. Happy days are here again for the rich, while everyone else goes though the same $h1t everyday.

good articles; http://www.iamned.com

Ppl have no money, no heath care, no home, no job, no sanity.

[xilduq]

Ticking my a55. It WILL be extended.

[davidwayneosedach]

Just like the clunker program - anything benefitting Main St. is cut out fast!

[GreenN10]

Goldman and Bank of Amerika run the markets along with Geithner, and beagle boy Ben. There is no free markets, only welfare capitalism and socialism for capitalism.

good articles: http://www.iamned.com

[hellboundtrain]

We have set up certain inducements to come into our web, my precious. We will give you ,money and jewels and we will make life very, very comfortable for you for a certain quantity of time. But, be aware that someday we will lower the boom and when that day arrives there may be nothing left of you dream for the future because the trickster/­fraudster/­bankster has oh-so-cleverly planned it from the start to turn the tables on you and yours to have your dreams for a pleasant future end up in their pile at their end of the table. This very thing has happened to millions upon millions!

Moral: Beware! Beware! At every step, at every moment, at every offer! Trust no one!

[georgiadoc]

well said. The facade is up, the game is on, the propaganda machine rolls, and ultimately the people who control the money (bankers) take over this republic. The great experiment of Democracy is fading fast :(

[rememberthepoor]

Then there are those who feel the housing market has not bottomed out yet. Foreclosed homes have been held off the market and prices will fall another 60%. They will wait for that to buy a home.

[eilish]

Jeez. Can't get anybody to bite? Probably can't sell their own house to buy another. Perhaps they are recovering from losing all the 401k cash, or maybe the economy is just biting a little too hard these days. Or maybe the credit score is lower now that they've had to default on that credit card when the rate soared to 29.9% for no apparent reason. Somebody in the family has undoubtedly had their work hours cut back from full-time to part, or lost their job entirely thus making them unqualified for a mortgage. It's very highly likely that, due to one or all of the above, they've already lost a home so nobody is ever going to give them a mortgage again.

[ldsb]

Only 8 comments- maybe noone give a cr *p cuz noone wants to buy anyway.

[skymuffin]

"First Time Homebuyer" is misleading. This actually applies to anyone within certain income restrictions that hasn't purchased property in the last 3 years.

In California, anyone who purchases a newly-constructed home this years qualifies for a $10,000 tax rebate.

So, some people could possibly receive $18.000 in tax rebates. So, who says government never done nuthin' fer ya?

[dcharles87]

This needs to be extended. Housing prices stabilizing and starting to tick up will change the game. If banks know they are lending on an appreciating asset, they are far more likely to lend. If housing prices at least stop going down, people are also a lot less likely to leave their homes and that would also help move prices upward.

You can check out your states mortgage laws here:
http://www.bankapedia.com/mortgage-encyclopedia/state-mortgage-laws

[JoeBlough]

A first time house buyer gets a free $8,000. But a cancer victim without private insurance gets nothing?
Sounds like blood money to me.

[DanSteSr]

1 new home = 100 jobs!!!!!

[JoeBlough]

No, make it a trillion jobs. Sounds more believeable.

[dpnstl]

According to a study just released by Zillow.com almost 1 in 5 prospective home buyers say the tax credit would strongly influence them to buy if the deadline were extended....Fix Housing First is a colaition that has been working to get the homebuyer tax credit deadline extended as well as the program expanded to include more than first time homebuyers...they have asked people to let the White House and Treasury know the credits are working and have a link that makes it easy to take action...I included this link as well as info on Fix Housing First and the Zilow survey in a post I did at

http://realestateconsumernews.com/home-sellers/almost-1-in-5-prospective-homebuyers-say-extending-8000-tax-credit-to-2010-would-be-primary-influence-on-their-decision-to-buy/

[DestinationsUnknown]

This was a GOP amendment!