HOME BUYERS TAX-CREDIT TO BE EXTENDED

GSIG LLC

Following up on last week’s blog, we now have more details on the proposed tax-credit extension for many first time home buyers.

The U.S. Senate strongly voted in favor, (85 – 2 votes) to move the bill to a final vote. Members of the Senate have publicly said that they expect the bill to be fully approved and passed by next week.

In addition to this extension, a proposed $6,500 tax credit may be extended to those homebuyers who have lived in their previous home for at least 5 years. Compared to the 7 required previously.

Many in the real estate industry are welcoming this news, not only are buyers and sellers anticipating a growth in real estate sales, but homebuilders are now taking notice of this extension and are ramping up construction in order to sell their properties to customers before the tax credit expires.

Lenders are also beginning to start aggressive loan packages to offer their clients in hopes of using this tax credit to fuel and stimulate a slowly rising real estate industry. Mortgage revenues rose almost 5% last quarter according to major lenders.

There is however some caution being exercised with this proposed tax credit extension. U.S. government tax officials said that they have received almost 100,000 bogus and false claims for the $8,000 tax credit, along with approximately 1.4million legitimate claims that have been filed totaling nearly $18 million in tax credits given already.

Under the proposed plan and revisions, in order to qualify for the first time home buyer tax-credit; the potential buyer cannot earn more than $125,000 if they are single. If they are married / filing taxes jointly they cannot make more than $250,000 per a year.

This is a drastic increase from the original requirements which had an income limit of $75,000 for a single person and $150,000 for couples/joint filings.

This new tax-credit is expected to pass Senate voting by the end of the week. For more information on this and other real estate news be sure to check back with us weekly at http://www.gsigllc.com/ or follow us on twitter at http://www.blogger.com/www.twitter.com/gsigllc/