Many people who have been thinking of taking advantage of the 8000 tax credit might need a gentle reminder that the 8000 tax credit officially ends on December 1, 2009.
Which means that if you haven’t yet started the process of buying a home, you might want to think about getting on the ball. Remember, buying a home takes time. You first spend time searching for the right home, then you spend time writing an offer, negotiating the final price and then it is time to get your financing through the loan process.
If you think that you have “plenty of time” consider these things:
- Due to current market conditions, in many parts of California, houses in the sub-$300k range are getting multiple offers – which means you may need to “bid” on multiple properties before “winning” one.
- It “normally” takes 30 days to get your financing arranged once you have a sales contract.
- According to the IRS, you must actually close on the home home for it to be considered occupied and qualified for the credit.
If you are wondering if the 8000 tax credit will be extended, the official answer is that it might get extended… but it isn’t something that you should count on. In order to get the 8000 tax credit extended, it will take an act of congress — and we all know how those things go.
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Extending the credit will take an act of congress? Well, just how do you think the thing was created in the first place, lol? Yeah, I wish I could buy a house before it runs out, but there’s just no way. We probably won’t even be ready if it gets extended through the summer of 2010. Maybe, just maybe we’ll be ready to buy the second half of 2010, and that’s what I’m hoping for right now. The trouble is, even though the $8k back is nice, if you have no downpayment there’s just no way around that. Geez, what geniuses came up with this plan and absolutely forbid the $8k to be credited towards the downpayment? As if we’re all just sitting around hoarding huge sums of money to put towards downpayments. Yeah right!
Well, our family could certainly benefit from it now if it were extended…We are just saddened by recent news from our home loan specialist…We got our approval, then they appraised our “gifted” acreages, that was given to us from my parents. Being that the land appraised for $20,850.00, they are now deducting this amount from our loan….makes no sense….so now i need $10,000.00 to $15,000.00 to make up the difference…or I shrink my square footage! This is what they are telling me…hummm My square footage was going to only be 2352 sft, to me that was moderate for our family size….it would accommodate our familys needs fine…and now we will have to lower it…So yes, the $15,000.00 would absolutely help our family…This has been a long and lengthy loan process and I am just affraid that we will miss out on the $8000.00 rebate…we already missed out on our cvlosing cost grant, because they ran out of funds…Extending the credit would be very HELPFUL!!!
3.5% for a down payment is a “huge” amount? Particularly when it can be gifted in the cas of FHA? Give me a break. If you can’t come up with $3-10K, then you shouldn’t be a home owner. What are you going to do if you get into your house and have to spend $3-4K repair the A/C or something else? Walk away from the house? People need to wake up and realize it wasn’t that long ago you needed 20% down. Save your money or accept being a renter. Don’t expect the government to provide every friggin’ thing you need.
3.5% isn’t alot i guess when it comes down to it. It’ll just take some tight saving and Budgeting which we all need to be doing anyhow. But what I think i’m gonna do is take that $8k if it comes round again when our house is purchased and “save” it for those needed repairs. Who knows, with this government they may want it back- since they can’t seem to get much right, I want to be ready either way!
I can agree with John, 3.5% out of a 200k home isn’t a huge amount of money. An idea may include tapping into your 401k, or parents for the downpayment. There is a big differance in wanting a home and owning a home. Repairs are costly, pools need alot of maintenance and the yard doesn’t cut itself. Lastly you can’t just put up a fence you need a permit so you won’t get slapped with a lean later on in the future. Moral is if you can’t save up to 7,000 for the 3.5% then don’t put yourself and your family at risk.
Try NACA.com…Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.
30 yr fixed , one point below prime regardless of your credit score and no closing costs. I know, I didnt believe it either until I attended a workshop.
Hey John, ” repair the A/C” where I come from A/C is not a necessity, you gotta be kidding me (yeah your in touch with reality). Most people can afford the 3.5% , but to have the $8,000 in advance to nock of the price of the house resulting in lower payments is a big help for people. The government wastes money left and right, it’s about time they use it to actually help people.
it would be great if they extended the stimulous package of $8000 or even raise it. my wife and i put an offer in June 09′ and it is now almost mid Oct 09′ and we are still waiting on the sellers bank to approve the offer. So i guess what I am getting at is that they should at least make a new law saying that if you are under contract and waiting forever on the banks, that the government gave all that money to, you should still be eligible to recieve the credit.
A response for Rick,
I surely feel what you are going thru my husband and I put in an offer also in June 09 everything is done the only thing we are waiting for is an approval letter from the bank, our problem is that we have three animals, fish tank and two parakeets and our leese will not be extended. we need to be out by 10/31/09 We are almost ready to pull out if we rented a hotel and storage until the bank decided it would be almost my down payment for the closing so I will wish you luck and I will keep bitting my fingers. By the way we were supposed to close 10/23/09 now we really don’t know. I am so frustated!
If you are financing your home on an FHA mortgage, with an FHA approved lender or through a nonprofit you can use the tax credit towards certain down payment and closing costs. Nonprofit and FHA lenders will be allowed to give qualifying home buyers a short term loan of up to the maximum $8000 tax credit. Good news is people can get into a home for practically 0 down, the bad news is, people can get into a home for practically 0 down. With no out of pocket investment many will be willing to walk away when times get tough. Yah, the government can charge them back before 3 years, but whose gonna police that?
How does this help people like me who purchased in April of 2008? I have to pay back the 7500 tax credit they gave me at that time. Since i purchased my house everything has gone up except my home value. I tried to refinance under your (i did not vote for him) great and fearless leaders proposed stimulus package and was told i don’t qualify. I have had a newborn since then and a wife out of work and i am barely holding a roof over our heads. As usual, the middle class in this country suffers. The rich get richer and the poor get help. The middle class is becoming an endangered species. Most all of these politicians who are put in office are crooks and lie to the public everyday. Misappropriating and mismanaging funds and making their wallets fatter on my back is really starting to piss me off. We the American people just sit back and take their crap like the jerks we are. Especially the middle class!
Mad as Hell, You just proved John and JJ’s point! I’m all for helping people out, but if you don’t have skin in the game and don’t have at least 6 months in reserves, no one should be buying a house! We scrimped and saved for a few years to get our 20% down to buy our house and waited on having a family because we wanted to make sure we’d be ok if anything happened. If it hadn’t been for all the no money down programs, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in now. I know of someone who got into her home with no money down, can’t support the house, is going into foreclosure and is stripping the house down … and she’s just walking away. Guess what? She had no business buying a house!! You want the economy and housing industry to move forward? Banks need to get off their tushes and not take several months to move forward on houses when they have buyers who are willing and able to buy! We need to get all this reo inventory off the books so that prices can stabilize and normal sellers can sell their homes!
The $8000 tax rebate is a joke. All it does is keep housing prices artificially inflated….geeeze….wake up people!