Home prices and mortgage interest rates have been at a declining rate over the last several months. The U.S. Senate has seen how the tax incentive for first-time homebuyers has helped spur the economy and help the declining housing market, so they have decided to extend the $8,000 tax break until June 2010 in the hopes that more people will take advantage of Tampa homes for sale and homes for sale all across the country.
The Senate voted on the extension of the first-time homebuyer’s incentive program in November, therefore people will not have to rush out and try to ‘beat the clock’ and have all their mortgage paperwork completed and filed with their county clerks offices before December 31, 2009.
The first-time homebuyer’s tax credit, which was due to expire at the end of 2009, was credited for the recent upswing in home sales all across the nation. The first-time homebuyer’s tax credit is given to people who have lived in apartments or other dwellings other than owning their own home for the past three years in a row. This tax credit incentive gave thousands of individuals and families the reason and financial motivation they needed to purchase their first home, even in this downward economy.
Approximately 350,000 of the 1.4 million first-time homebuyers who’ve qualified for the tax incentive program would not have made their purchases had it not been for the tax credit of $8,000 they will be receiving on their 2009 income taxed returns – this according to estimates from the National Association of Realtors.
The Senate also voted to allow a new incentive program for up to $6,500 for repeat homebuyers who have been in their present homes for at least five years. This will allow many more millions of homeowners to trading in their existing homes for something more affordable, bigger or smaller depending on their family status.
By extending the tax incentive program and adding existing homebuyers, the U.S. Senate is helping to stimulate the economy because more people will be purchasing homes that once sat empty due to foreclosure. Additionally, Tampa realty and other realtors will have more work and make more money than they had been in the past when no one was purchasing homes.