Roswell Homebuyers – Homebuyer Tax Credit Extended

Roswell home buyers, you may yet get that homebuyer tax credit after all. This week, the Senate passed a bill to extend the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit until September 30th. It now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign the bill. The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the House on Tuesday. The deadline had been June 30th to close on the property.

After a close brush with the deadline, Congress passed an extension of the Homebuyer Tax Credit closing deadline, the Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act (H.R. 5623). The extension applies only to transactions that have ratified contracts in place as of April 30, 2010 that have not yet closed. The legislation is designed to create a seamless extension and the new closing deadline for eligible transactions is now September 30, 2010. There will be no gap between June 30th and the date the President signs the bill into law.

Before you get too excited, the bill doesn’t help anyone currently shopping for a home. Buyers must have signed a contract by April 30th to qualify for the tax break. At issue is when the deal must be finalized.

Repeat home buyers also have until September 30th to close on new homes and receive a tax credit of up to $6,500.

Congress has been trying to pass the extension for the last month, but it got caught up in the usual Washington politics. The extension is estimated to raise the deficit by $9 million.

An estimated 200,000 people have missed out on the tax credit because they wouldn’t have been able to close by the end of business Wednesday. Many are trying to take advantage of short sales, which are complicated deals to complete.

Contact us for all of your Roswell real estate needs. We are local market experts and continue to find great deals for our clients.

Roswell Foreclosure Alert

With two months left until the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit and the $6,500 move-up homebuyer tax credit expire, it’s time to get serious about your Roswell real estate shopping list. Now while the tax credit is a nice little incentive, you’d also like a great deal as well, right?

So we’ve compiled a list of the hottest new Roswell foreclosures for you. We have some high-end luxury foreclosures in neighborhoods such as Chatham Park, Cambridge Walk and Stonewyck priced anywhere from $600,000 to $1.6 million.

In addition, we have some foreclosures priced perfectly for the Roswell first-time homebuyer in neighborhoods such as Magnolia Walk, Foxhall, Brookfield Country Club and Horseshoe Bend.

Click here to see a complete list of Roswell foreclosures available right now.

Our team specializes in Roswell real estate and we’ll be glad to meet with you to get you started toward owning the perfect Roswell home. Contact us today to get started.

Senate Passes Extension of Homebuyer Tax Credit

Senators agreed on Wednesday to extend the popular tax credit for first-time homebuyers and to offer a reduced credit to some repeat buyers.  The current $8,000 first-time homebuyers tax credit is set to expire at the end of November.

The agreement in the Senate extends the existing tax credit for first-time homebuyers while also offering a reduced credit of up to $6,500 tax credit to repeat buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years.

These tax credits would be available to homebuyers who sign sales agreements by the end of April.  They would have until the end of June to close on their new homes.

September saw a 3.6 percent fall in new home sales…the first time it fell since March.  Many feel that it was the uncertainty of the tax credit that made new home sales fall in September.

It takes 45-60 days to close on a house, making it unlikely that a sale made today would qualify for the current tax credit which has a deadline of the end of November.

About 1.4 million first-time homebuyers have qualified for the credit through August. The National Association of Realtors estimates that 350,000 of them would not have purchased their homes without the credit.

Will the $8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit Be Extended?

This is a question I’ve been hearing a lot lately…”will the $8,000 home buyer tax credit be extended?”  Unfortunately, I am no fortune teller, neither is H2 Realty’s lead Realtor Aaron Hofmann or any other real estate professionals that I know of.  Here is what I’ve found though in doing some research.

There is no official extension.

Here is where things stand.

• There is bipartisan support in Congress for extending the credit past Nov. 30th.  It is still unclear if it were to be extended, how far it would be extended, the size of the credit and how many more buyers would qualify.
• It is unclear what President Obama’s stance is on the issue.
• The latest idea under discussion is a credit worth up to $8,000 for first-time homebuyers and up to $6,500 for homeowners looking to trade up to a bigger primary residence and who have already lived in their current home for five years.
• Proponents of the credit say that if it is allowed to expire, the housing market and the broader economy will grow moribund again.
• Critics state that of the nearly 2 million homebuyers who will have gotten the credit by Nov. 30th that only about 10% to 20% bough homes solely because of the credit.