American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, H.R. 1, was signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009. A couple of key npoints that were supported by REALTORS® and The National Association of REALTORS® were:

• 1. $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit that would be available to first-time home buyers for the purchase of a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. View a chart detailing this provision.
• 2. Commercial real estate provisions, which focus on green building and energy efficiency as well as business tax incentives. H.R. 1 provides significant funds for New Jersey energy programs, which in turn, could help support commercial property owners’ investment in energy efficiency upgrades.

This is the perfect time to buy your next home. Besides the additional tax credits (they net against your current tax liability – if you owe money, this credit reduces that amount and if you have money being returned to you, this increases the amount you have coming), home prices are at their lowest in decades, and interest rate are at a point where they cannot go anywhere but UP.

This has also reinstated the higher loan limits for Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. View the newly approved loan limit estimates.  Lastly, you may want to view an outline of the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, which President Obama announced on February 18, 2009 designed to help up to 7-9 million families avoid foreclosure by restructuring or refinancing their mortgages.

Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, first time home buyers, home buyers, loan limits, obama, tax credit, tax credit for buyers

Did you hear the latest news? Senate OKs $15,000 tax break for homebuyers

The housing industry should get a big boost from the latest addition to the stimulus bill that is working its way through the  Congress.  On Wednesday, Senators approved a proposal that would give home buyers a tax credit of 10% of the value of new or existing residences, up to a $15,000 limit. The current law, that was passed last year, provides for a $7,500 tax break and only for first-time homebuyers.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, (R-Georgia) said “It is time to fix housing first.”  Isakson’s office said the proposal would cost the government an estimated $19 billion. In all, the stimulus is now topping an estimated $920 billion.

President Barack Obama, in an op-ed that appears in Thursday’s Washington Post, painted a dire picture if Congress fails to move quickly to pass the stimulus bill.  “This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse,” Obama wrote in the op-ed titled, “The Action Americans Need.“

Tags: attracting buyers, buyer credit, congress, Housing, housing market, obama, stimulus, tax breaks, tax credit