Thursday, October 29, 2009

Senate Panel passes tax credit extension

Senate panel OKs extension for home buyers' credit
By Alan J. Heavens

Inquirer Real Estate Writer

A Senate committee reached a compromise yesterday to extend the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, a boost the housing industry expects will help it pull out of its two-year-old downturn.

Lawmakers in Washington also added a $6,500 tax credit for other primary-home purchasers and raised the qualifying income limits to $125,000 for single taxpayers and $225,000 for joint taxpayers, housing-industry sources said.

Under the Senate panel compromise, buyers must have sales agreements in hand by April 30, but they will have until June 30 to go to settlement, the sources said. The measure still faces votes in the full Senate and the House.

The current tax credit did little for the new-home market in September, the Commerce Department reported yesterday - news that took many industry analysts by surprise. Sales fell 3.6 percent from August and 7.8 percent from September 2008.

Industry observers had expected a fifth consecutive monthly increase in new-home sales, believing that the tax incentive for qualified first-time buyers - credited with 357,000 sales of previously owned homes so far this year - would do the trick.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

10 inexpensive ways to add value and appeal to your home

Click on the above link for 10 great ways to improve your home without spending allot of money courtesy of the National Association of Realtors.