Florida Mortgage Blog

This news is great in a lot of ways!

• It helps loans in process which are running behind due to slow lender turnaround times or borrowers who are still saving or repairing their credit scores.
• It also goes one step further by offering incentives to existing homeowners who have been in their home for at least five years. This avoids benefits for "flippers" or "speculators" yet it provides bread and butter benefits to mainstream homeowners and senior citizens who wish to retire into a smaller home.

New York Times Nov 5, 2009: To spur the housing market, the bill extends an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers that was due to expire on Nov. 30, making it available to those who have a contract before May 1 on a primary residence priced at up to $800,000. The bill also creates a new credit of up to $6,500 for existing homeowners who buy a new residence if they have lived in their current one for at least five of the last eight years.

Further expanding the number of eligible people, the measure raises the income limits for those claiming the credit to $125,000 a year for individuals and $225,000 for couples, up from $75,000 and $150,000. After that, the break begins phasing out.

The Obama administration had been unenthusiastic about extending the home buyers’ credit; many economists say most people claiming it would have bought homes anyway.