President Obama signed the new bill into law yesterday.

The new bill calls for an incentive for existing homeowners who have owned their current homes at least five years, making them eligible for tax credits of up to $6,500 when they purchase a new home.  First time home buyers or anyone who hasn’t owned a home in the last three years could still get up to $8,000.  To qualify, buyers
in both groups have to sign a purchase agreement by April 30, 2010 and close by June 30, 2010.

The credit is available for the purchase of principal homes costing $800,000 or less.  Vacation homes are ineligible.  The credit would be phased out for individuals with annual incomes above $125,000 and for joint filers with incomes above $225,000. The credit may be extended an additional year until June 30, 2011, for members of the military who serve outside
the United States for at least 90 days.

This is a nice opportunity to purchase in the event the recent timing may not have been conducive to purchase.  There is lots of inventory and the next 9 months offer many who may not have low credit scores or inadequate debt ratios.  Although the process is still primarily credit score driven, the extended incentive time for home purchases will be helpful to many who were not quite able to qualify last year.

Tags: First Time Home Buyers, Tax Credit

Posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 9:35 pm and is filed under Tax Credit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.