Home Buyer Tax Credit Deadline Approaching

Time is Running Out on Home Buyer Tax Credit!

March 1st, 2010 by Anne West
Categories: Buying a home, Real estate

If you are a buyer seeking to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit, you have only 60 days left to get a home under contract to be eligible for the tax credit. The deadline is April 30, 2010 to have binding contract. You then have 60 days (til June 30) to close on the transaction.

Sounds like a lot of time, but believe me, in this environment, it’s not.

First you have to sort through all the homes that meet your criteria and find THE one. Then you have to negotiate an offer. And get approved for a loan (actually, you should get pre-approved before you even start looking, so you know exactly what you can afford). This whole process can take time, so you should probably get started soon.

Here are some facts about the tax credit:

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit = $8,000

A first time buyer is defined as anyone who has not owned a home in the last 3 years.

Income limits are $125,000 on a single return and $225,000 on a joint return.

Maximum home purchase price allowed is $800,000.

Repeat Home Buyer Tax Credit = $6,500

Buyers must have lived in their home for 5 consecutive years out of the last 8 years.

Income limits and maximum home price are the same as for first time buyers.

Home must be primary residence. Cannot be vacation home or investment property.

Whether or not you qualify for the tax credit, another reason to consider buying now is that interest rates are at an all time low right now and are predicted to begin rising in the next few months.

Tags: home buyer tax credit

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 5:53 am and is filed under Buying a home, Real estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.