Living Tampa Bay Real Estate Blog

Home-buyer tax credit still available

Congress has legislated an extension and enhancement of the Home-Buyer Tax Credit program. It now includes home purchases whose sale documents are signed on or before April 30, 2010, and which close by June 30, 2010

As before, first-time homebuyers (those who have not owned their personal residence at any time during the three years preceding the current home purchase) may receive a tax credit of either 10% of the home’s purchase price or $8,000, whichever is less. Single taxpayers can now earn up to $125,000, at which level the tax credit begins to phase out. (It was $75,000 in the earlier version.) Married couples can now earn up to $225,000 (up from $150,000). And there is a new upper limit of $800,000 for the home’s purchase price.

Perhaps the most striking change in the new legislation is the availability of a tax credit (either 10% of the purchase price or $6,500, whichever is less) for “move-up” homebuyers, defined as those who have owned their principal residence for a consecutive five of the eight years before purchasing a new one now.

Given the number of home sales the earlier program appears to have motivated, this new legislation may motivate many of your homebuyers and prove a boon to the real estate recovery. Please feel free to call me for further information at  (727) 418-8850