I have very little information on this, but I was hoping that people in the know might be able to post info here.
My understanding is that there is currently a $7,500 tax credit that serves as an interest free loan for anyone buying a house. I’m not sure, but I think this is for first time homebuyers only.
Congress is currently trying to pass a bill that will increase it to $15,000, open it to anyone buying a house (one time purchase only) and that it will not have to be paid back. It also sounds like this will get pushed through as it is one of the items that has a lot Republican support as well as Democrat support.
If anyone has any more info, please post it and provide updates if you can. My wife and I just found the perfect house yesterday and I figure since you guys are already funding my pay checks, you might as well subsidize my home purchase as well.
To misquote Crapola, “People who don’t like socialism are those who get beat by it.” ; ^ ) All kidding aside, I want to make the most of this. Thanks.
“The provision, introduced by Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican from Georgia, would provide a tax credit of as much as $15,000–or 10 percent of the home’s price tag, whichever is less–to anyone buying a primary residence during a one-year period beginning on the date of enactment.”
You will get the credit as long as you don’t make over 150K per year…another “fairness” hurdle…
What stimulates the economy more, the buying of a 500K home that needs to be furnished or the buying of a 200K home that needs to be furnished.
There you go being logical again. What next, a litmus test on whether they can actually afford to buy the home and then make the payments?
Hmmmm…including bonueses I think we will be right ove that threshold. I wonder if they’ll phase it out like they did with the stimulus checks. ie…if you make $151K you get a $14,500 credit, or something like that. Otherwise, I might be taking some leave without pay this year.
"5. Is there an income limit or any other restrictions on participation? The tax credit would be limited to primary residences and does not come with an income restriction, Kirchner says. “You must occupy for at least two years as your primary residence,” she says. It applies to “any home, meaning a condo, a house, foreclosed, new, previously owned.”"
I hope they are right and you are wrong…for my sake. ; ^ )
Congress is currently trying to pass a bill that will increase it to $15,000, open it to anyone buying a house (one time purchase only) and that it will not have to be paid back. It also sounds like this will get pushed through as it is one of the items that has a lot Republican support as well as Democrat support.
Crap like this is really starting to piss me off. This will merely prop up the over-inflated housing market, and put money in the pockets of people who really don’t need it… and it all just goes “on the card” baby…
What happened to infrastructure projects and high-tech R&D… you know… stuff that at least has a chance of working?
Hmmmm…including bonueses I think we will be right ove that threshold. I wonder if they’ll phase it out like they did with the stimulus checks. ie…if you make $151K you get a $14,500 credit, or something like that. Otherwise, I might be taking some leave without pay this year.
AHHHHHHHH DEADWEIGHT LOSS!!!
you have, although perhaps jokingly, demonstrated the greatest challenge to tax schemes (and one which most people fail to consider) - tax induced distortion. now the real question: what is better for society in the long run, you having that 14.5k credit and getting a new house, or you working less in order to meet the 150k threshold and getting a 15k credit?
perhaps the real answer is: you make 165k a year and get a 16.5k credit!
<sorry, but optimal tax theory is on my brain right now.>
You can misquote me all day long BarryP. I am honored. Taking advantage of socialism is the TRUEST form of free market I can think of!!! haha! All the best.
Actually I’m dead serious. $15K is a lot of money and I would most certainly take a week off from work without pay in order to receive it if I had to, provided that it didn’t mess with some project deadline. If it did, then I’d kindly ask my company to offer a lower bonus to me that year.
I did a little more research. As it stands, there is a rumor that it will be phased out above $150K, but I don’t imagine that it will be the case.
These are the details I’ve found so far. Nothing has been signed yet, so everything is tentative:
$15K tax credit OR 10% of the value of the home, whichever is less.
It is based on your tax liability. You can’t pay negative taxes, however you can spread it over 2 years. So, anyone paying $7,500+ in taxes and buys a $150,000+ house will get the full credit.
It does not have to be paid back.
It will either be for homes purchaced after the day the bill is signed OR dated back to January 1st…depending on what they finaly sign.
if you are serious, than that merely furthers my point. there are many things that we chose as alternatives in order to take advantage of taxes. the distortion may have negative impacts greater than the initiation of the break in the first place. a phaseout is an attempt to reduce this distortion, but allow for “equity” by reducing the rates at higher incomes. not sure if agree, but whatevs.
“You will get the credit as long as you don’t make over 150K per year…”
That’s pathetic. Why not put a madatory adoption law in place whereas every person of family with an income of over $150,000 is forced to adopt a family making less than $40,000. Oh wait that already exists it’s just not as direct and it goes through the so called tax system…
It’s just pathetic how the America that once used to be the land of opportunity and freedom more and more drifts away from all that. We used to be the most prosperous nation but one has to ask themselves why that was the case. I doubt it had much to do with socialism, over-regulation, etc.
Add the $1,500 welfare checks to the mix that anybody over $x income doesn’t get and it starts adding up. Why again would somebody work their ass of trying to make more money when those that didn’t get welfare checks, loan mods & house downpayments. It’s not their fault that government throws the money at them but this is getting way to ridiculous.
Well put. I do not understand why people look to gov’t for this. No matter your current situation, why wouldn’t you depend on yourself to improve it, should that be your goal? The way things are, the more you better yourself (regardless of level of income), the more you are penalized. And it actually hurts the people at the bottom the most! All of the “free” things go away…they are DIS incented to prosper.
This is just another attempt from the government to price fix RE. That in combination with the proposed $50-100Billion to be used for Loan Modifications. It just gets pathetic and while most people are excited over the stimulus proposals by the government with the hope that things will improve; it becomes more obvious that this government and the country in its current form are just another bubble that some day pops as it cannot continue to exist in its current form indefinitely.
And even if everybody can qualify for this program, I still don’t agree with it. Plus what are $15k on a home that’s currently valued at $800k? Sure, it’s $15k but two to three years from now that home will most likely be worth at least 20% less. This definitely makes sense at the lower end of the housing spectrum but couldn’t fool me into buying anything were I to look at the upper income middle class range right now.
- It is based on your tax liability. You can’t pay negative taxes, however you can spread it over 2 years. So, anyone paying $7,500+ in taxes and buys a $150,000+ house will get the full credit.
That will be a departure from the current $7500 credit, then. The existing credit is refundable.
Hopefuly this will serve to get the economy moving BUT people will have learned their lessons and will be a little smarter about what they buy. OKay, strike that…people are idiots. Hoefuly the banks will be more selective about who qualifies for a loan.
BTW, my brother was telling me that his former coworker got into a $650K house on a salary of $65K. I know he was married and don’t really know what his wife made, but she was in her early 20s.