Is the $15K tax credit for home buyers that is in the Senate’s version of the Stimulus Bill in jeopardy?
Reader and new home buyer Tyler (who has been providing fantastic commentary in our $15K tax credit posts) dug up this nugget from CNN:
A Democratic source also said a plan to offer tax credits to homebuyers that is in the Senate bill will be scaled back to make room for House priorities and a Senate proposal to offer tax incentives to buyers of American-built cars will be nixed. (source)
In an effort to find another corroborating source, I looked through a dozen or so other articles (of the 251,513 stimulus bill related news articles currently indexed on Google…) and haven’t found any. Yet. Update, see below for more sources.
In my opinion, lowering the home buyer tax credit limit from $15,000, if that is even what “scaled back” means, isn’t a show stopper. The way the bill is currently written, that $15K credit can be evenly distributed across two years. In order to pay $7,500 annually in taxes and be able to utilize all of the $15K credit in two years, you’d have to make over $75,000 a year. There is already much whining across the Internet that this $15K tax credit benefits “the rich”. Lowering the limit would diffuse some of these concerns and still provide a “get off the fence” motivator for some potential home buyers.
In related news, the Talking Heads of mainstream media are reporting that a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the stimulus package may be reached today.
UPDATES: Kansas City.com reports the $15K credit will be scaled back.
The Washington Post is also reporting a “scale back”.
Listening to Fox News live (at 12:09pm MST) and they are reporting the home buyer’s tax credit may be eliminated completely.
Just in from the AP: “Working to accommodate the new, lower overall limit of the bill, negotiators effectively wiped out a Senate-passed provision for a new $15,000 tax credit to defray the cost of buying a home, these officials said.”
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Thanks for this update. There is so much going on with this bill that it’s hard to know where to get accurate information. It took us a few days to even locate the actual bill to take a look.
Looking forward to seeing what this brings…whether it’s scaled back or not.
**Amber Salmon´s last blog post..FAQ: So, What’s Up With The $15,000 Tax Credit?
Jay, your coverage on this tax credit has been great. The opponents of the tax credit make a good point – Current homeowners would need to sell their current property to buy a new one, so the incentive does little to reduce inventory levels – then there’s the up to $39 billion price tag.
At this point, I wish they’d just stop announcing new plans and let the market operate. I’d guess the markets been stalled a good 9 months of normal operation because of all this talk about tax cuts (last year) and TARP I and the stimulus plan (late last year, this year). Now we’ll be stalling while we wait on details and the implementation of TARP II – can’t we just do something and give it a few months to see what happens? For all we know, the rate cuts could have done a decent job if they weren’t followed by an announcement the same day about a future rate cut.
**Jayson´s last blog post..Senate Passes Economic Stimulus Plan – $15,000 tax Credit for Homebuyers Still In
the $15,000 homebuyer tax credit may be dead. it sounds like negotiations in the House and Senate are calling for removing it altogether. sources claim taking it out would save $39b
This is total BS…first the house wants to give new home buyers $7500 refundable, then the senate wants to dish out $15000 non refundable, and NOW, after putting the two in the same room for a few hours, there may be no incentives for new home buyers! I just cannot wait for the final bill to be settled on, so I know whether or not to continue to look at homes, or give up and look at apartments.
Will they finalize the bill by tomorrow? I will come back hear to read the details of the passed bill.
Good news on the bill right? It seems potential home buyers get their way after all!
**Theo´s last blog post..Checklist ‘Mijn Website Is Stuk’
The data reveals that high tax states are missing out on the level job creation and wage growth that low tax states are experiencing.
**Jenny´s last blog post..Overview of Types of Carpets
Your coverage on this has been great, thanks! I hope they do decide soon what will be going on so we can all start focusing on what to do with the results.
**MaryAnn Knell-Peoria Real Estate´s last blog post..10 Steps to Achieving the American Dream of Home Ownership!
You have been great in sharing all this information and getting the link to all the post up at the top of your home page for quick reading. Thanks!
Scaling back the tax credit will not help the property market recover. What’s Obama doing?
I think we have not seen the worst yet. Property pricing has fallen by almost 40% in Arizona.
This is definitely a bad news and might trigger the property pricing to continue sliding.
I hope they will seriously consider bringing back the tax credit to improve the declining home sales.
Well what more can we expect Because of continuous economic downturn, many realtors and business establishment were engaged in financial issues, they tend to get big loans in order for their business to survive in this time of depression.
I think the tax credit will really help the real estate industry get back on its feets again.
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