$15,000 Home Buyers Tax Credit Smoke And Mirrors
Face it real estate agents and home buyers, that $15,000 tax credit that the Senate floated by you last week is nothing but hot air. They have already agreed in principle to bring it back down to the $7,500 tax for first time home buyers in the compromise committee.
Yep, you the home buyers and sellers are left hanging in the deal. It was a linchpin for getting it through the Congress, but when the one time that the average American could get some help, the housing industry find it’s bottom, and those desperate to sell their homes get some relief, Congress says too bad.
So let the social programs get billions, 300 million for golf carts get funded, but the American homeowner, a foundation of our country see some relief, you take the rug out from under us.
And now we have a double whammy. Potential homebuyers have been sitting on the sidelines waiting to see if the government meant for us to get the $15,000 to buy a home. So instead of making offers in February they have been led on a dance by politicians.
And then in a couple of months the news will be full of doom and gloom when no homes sold in the month of February scaring the heck out of all of us. And every media outlet in the country will forget it was the politicians who did this to the market.
Congressional negotiators are close to agreeing on a $7,500 tax credit to encourage home sales, instead of the larger, $15,000 credit that was in a Senate-passed economic stimulus bill, Senator Joseph Lieberman said on Wednesday.
Lieberman said, “Yes, definitely,” when asked by Reuters whether the negotiators were leaning toward the smaller credit for first-time homebuyers that was in a House-passed bill.
Separately, during a Senate committee hearing, Senator Bill Nelson said the $15,000 credit is “likely … to be cut down to a $7,500 credit” for homes bought after Jan. 1, 2009. via Reuters.
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Pingback by Fifteen Thousand Dollars | Real Central VA on 11 February 2009:
[...] 11 February 2008: It’s dead. In the words of the Real Estate Bloggers: And now we have a double whammy. Potential homebuyers have been sitting on the sidelines waiting [...]
Pingback by $15,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit Appears Dead. Removed from Compromised Version of Stimulus Bill — The Phoenix Real Estate Guy on 11 February 2009:
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Comment by Jill on 11 February 2009:
It would have been nice if this had passed with the up to $15,000 tax break. Depressing to think that they cut it in half.
Comment by Tom Royce on 11 February 2009:
Jill
Not just cut it in half, but it looks like they have also made it only for first time home buyers. So the chance for some actual stimulus is taken away.
Comment by Woodstock Homes on 11 February 2009:
This is pure garbage! They dangled the carrot for two weeks only to slash the amount in half and limit it to first time homebuyers. Our deflated industry needs that 15k for all buyers right now. Very dissappointed. I will be writing my Congressman about this.
Comment by AndyIngram on 12 February 2009:
That is a real shame but I’m going to take a breath and step back and wait for the final signed document.
I’ve had many buyers talking about $15k credit and it had the potential of getting people to move off the fence. Hopefully they will see that this is real stimulus and not just someone’s pet project.
Comment by Serf on 12 February 2009:
I think this whole Tax Credit is back to where it was last year – Up to $7,500 Credit for First Time Home buyers (or those who haven’t owned a home in the last 3 years) and it must be PAID BACK. So it is nothing more than a loan, screw that!! That doesn’t help anybody.
Comment by TonyinStPete on 12 February 2009:
To make matters worse in all this, we taxpayers are being asked once again to “bail out” the big Wall Street banks with their greedy but clueless CEO’s. These banks–Wells, Citi, B of A, Chase, etc. are the same ones who are “sitting on” short sale offers to help often well-meaning and beaten down homeowners get out from under mortages. They are doing nothing to help the overall real estate market which is the root of our country’s problems.
Comment by PeteinMaine on 12 February 2009:
I disagree TonyinSTPete,
The root of our country’s problems are an erosion of the middle class by outsourcing our economy to foreign communist countries (ie.China, the country we’ll be borrowing back the money we’ve sent to them to pay for this “stimulus”). As blue collar jobs dried up and our economy changed from manufacturing to low paying service industry jobs, people had less cash to spend, but they kept spending, using consumer credit (which was purchased by foreign investors gambling we wouldn’t pay it back on time, which we didn’t) getting ourselves further in debt. Interestingly, during this same mess, in order to maintain the ruse that our country was growing so they could get re-elected, politicians used freddie and fannie to keep mortgage interest rates low, housing market boomed, box stores selling chinese junk boomed, and housing prices went soooo much higher than the houses were actually worth. Then the house of cards got blown away in a perfect storm. At the first sign of a slight raise in mortgage interest rates, all the smoke and mirrors couldn’t put the house back up again.
So to summarize, the loss of middle class blue collar jobs pushed to the third world so corporate boards could increase their profit margins by using slave labor and avoiding any environmental regulations under the guise of higher returns for their investors, is the root cause of the current economic situation. IMHO lol.
Comment by Idaho Real Estate Pam Pugmire on 17 February 2009:
I hope they get this decided once and for all, and soon! It is making potential buyers hesitant to make an offer, because if passed, this bill will not be retroactive.
I think rewarding people for positive action (buying a home) is much better for the economy than bailing out irresponsible banks.
Just my 2 cents!