There was a chance that the U.S. Senate was going to vote on extending the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers as soon as today, but now they won’t vote until next week at the earliest according to the latest information on bloomberg.com.
“I think the first-time home-buyer credit is a great example of funding that’s helped to stabilize the housing market and should be extended,” said Jared Bernstein, chief economist to the Vice President, on Bloomberg television.
The current $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit was enacted as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package and it is set to expire November 30th.
The proposal is to extend the credit until April 30, and expand it to allow for more Americans to qualify. It looks as though the new extended plan will allow for homebuyers who have lived in their prior residences for at least five years to receive a credit of $6,500 for a new purchase under the plan. The plan would also allow couples earning as much as $225,000 and individuals as much as $125,000 to qualify for the tax break, which is higher than the current tax credit.
The intent of the extension is to prevent home sales from slipping any lower. The economy continues to struggle to recover from the worst drop in home prices since the Great Depression. More than 1.2 million borrowers have claimed $8.5 billion of the $13.6 billion set aside for the homebuyer tax credits this year, according to the Treasury Department. The Obama administration says that the credit has helped stabilize the nation’s housing market.
A new twist to the measure is that it would require those receiving the tax break to remain in their new homes for three years, or they would have to repay the credit. Lawmakers also said they will not extend this beyond the new April 30, 2010 deadline.
I know that there are thousands of Real Estate Agents anxiously awaiting the extension of the $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit program, and some homebuyers currently on the fence as well.
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