Seller Tactics on The Tax Credit Getting “Out There” I also have been somewhat flabbergasted by some of the different approaches agents are taking on the tax credit for their listings. There is a tactic going around in the listing remarks where it says “all offers to be reviewed on” x date. And then that date happens to be right before the deadline. To me, this seems stupid because buyers scrambling around last minute to try and get something locked down under contract are going to seriously consider skipping the property and moving on to something they have the opportunity of locking down NOW.

The newest version of the Housing Credit is finally finalized!  There has been lots of speculation, but Obama signed the newest housing credit into law so it is official now. There are some surprising changes that open up the world of credits in 2009 for buying a house to many more people. Here is what you need to know:

The current first time home buyer $8000 tax credit is extended to April 30, 2010 and you have on top of that an additional 2 months to close on the property after that (close by July 1st, 2010).  Income levels have been raised to modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of $125,000 for singles (up from $75,000) and $225,000 for married (up from $150,000). An additional credit has also been approved for purchasers of new homes regardless of first time home buyer status as long as they have lived in their current primary residence five of the last eight years.  This credit is for $6500 and seems to have the same deadlines/MAGI requirements. 

The $6500 credit for “move up” buyers does seem to be retroactive for all year, but I have not found a specific sentence on either the government page or the IRS page to tell me whether or not this is true.  The IRS tax form has not been updated online yet so I can’t go to the form and see there yet, but I will update this once I verify that if you bought your home in 2009 and other wise qualify it is retroactive regardless of when this bill went into effect.  (Stay tuned)

You can find the official bill here – it was written into an unemployment bill so scroll down a bit:  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:5:./temp/~c111dG8SpH::

Please do email me if you want more info or are interested in Seattle real estate. We have agents that specialize in every area of Seattle neighborhoods and suburbs and would love to help!  courtney@cooperjacobs.com

www.CooperJacobs.com

It sweeps the multiple listing service for changes and all listings form all companies are included. This is a great one stop shopping place if you are curious about any Seattle area real estate prices or conditions. There are neighborhood pages and suburb pages to give you info about each market.

Other info?

$8000 tax credit for first time homebuyers – for more than first timers so get all the details to see if you qualify.

$1000 in closing costs