Attention shoppers: You have barely a month left before the homebuyer tax credit expires. But depending on where you live, you might not want to rush out to buy.
First-time homebuyers may qualify for up to $8,000, while those who are trading up could get as much as $6,500. But either way, buyers have to ink sales contracts by the end of April and close before July 1 to see the refund.
And this is absolutely, positively your last chance to claim the credit. (Probably.) So don’t wait, thinking the credit will be extended for a third time.
There is little sentiment for continuing this program, especially because many consider the latest iteration’s results to be disappointing. Even the Senate’s biggest proponent of the homebuyer tax credit, Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., is ready to let it end.
“He has no plans to introduce legislation to extend the credit,” said Isakson’s spokeswoman. “Part of the benefit of the tax credit was the urgency its sun-setting generated.”
That urgency was less pronounced after the latest extension, which was enacted last fall. While the first version, which just covered first-time homebuyers, netted huge sales jumps, the real estate market slumped over the winter and early spring.
That may be because some people believed that Congress would just keep adding time to the game clock, according to Nicolas Retsinas, director of Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Study. That could have kept them home by the fireside instead of out house hunting.
Expect long delays in getting your $8,000 tax credit
“The credit’s influence and impact has waned considerably,” said Retsinas.
“You got a lot more bang for the buck on the first go round,” added Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research. “Most people acted on the presumption that the credit was going away.”
Avg. Sales Price: 379,000
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