Was the Home Buyer Tax Credit Really a Help or Just Hype?

Was the Home Buyer Tax Credit Really a Help or Just Hype?

 

Now that the drop dead date of April 30 has come and gone we can look at the government's home buyer tax credit through a different set of eyes.

I don't know how this program played out with most Realtors® but I really had very few people who were driven by it or that actually took advantage of it.  It was more a question of, "If it happens fine - if it doesn't that's fine, as well." 

As a home buyer, if you did not have a home under contract by yesterday, you stood to lose an either $8,000 tax credit if you were a first time home buyer or a $6,500 credit if you were an existing buyer.  Some people will be distressed by having missed this chance.

However, there is another way to view this.  There is a strong possibility that there could be a wave of sentiment from sellers that something has been missed by the passing of this date. And it will have to be reflected in the prices of homes during the "tax credit aftermath." 

Buyers are not the only ones who will have lost an opportunity here. Sellers are going to feel the pinch of this as well. They lost the chance to entice a buyer with an $8,000 or $6,500 discount and will probably have to make up for it in their sales prices.

This is the psychology that is about to take hold.  The government has been providing home buyers with a discount and now sellers will feel some pressure to compensate for the lack of it.

I don't think the bargains are quite over just yet.

Copyright 2010 "Was the Home Buyer Tax Credit Really a Help or Just Hype?" 

 Claudette Millette, Broker, Owner, The Buyers' Counsel - (508) 881-6230

Your Buyer Broker for Massachusetts Since 1992

MLS Property Search With No Registration Required