Home Buyer Credit Extension to Sept. 30th

Those of us in the real estate industry were starting to feel that the economy was turning around in the spring. Then the home-buyer tax credit expired and May & June were tough once again. Late Wednesday night Congress extended the deadline by three months for those buyers that had signed contract on a purchase by April 30th. Their deadline to close now is September 30th. The incentive pays out up to $8,000.

Buyers that were sweating the original deadline of June 30th are more than relieved. With the stricter lenders and higher presence of short sales, the real estate transaction has become a much longer process and this extension will help those buyers that were in this sort of situation. I’ve seen buyers get approved for financing with contingencies to pay off a certain amount of debt and then running against the clock to finalize the deal.

The National Association of Realtors estimates that the extension would assist about 180,000 people nationally and that 4.4 million people have received the credit including 2.9 million first-time buyers and 1.5 million repeat buyers.

National Assocation of Realtors article

IRS article