Home Buyer Tax Credit May Be Extended

Breaking News:
Yesterday, the Senate approved a proposal to extend the closing deadline on the home buyer tax credit. Under the proposal, those buyer's who's contracts are eligible to receive the credit, meaning they were in contract by APril 30th, 2010, would have more time to close on their new homes. The current deadline is June 30th, which many buyer's, attorney's and mortgage companies are struggling to close on this date. The extension would give them until September 30th; plenty of time to close even for FHA buyers.

Stay tuned as we expect final word next week!

Huge Open House Weekend Coming Up Part Of REALTOR® nationwide campaign!

Hoboken and Jersey City Real Estate Open House Weekend Coming Soon!

The National Association of Realtors® is holding a nationwide campaign to encourage seller's to hold open houses on the weekend of April 10th and 11th, 2010. This initiative is to help buyers seeking to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit, set to expire April 30th, see as many properties as they need in one weekend.

Buyers that find a property this weekend can make an offer, and respectively end attorney review period in time for the cut off date. Anything after this weekend of the 10th and 11th then the buyer would have to move extremely fast with all parties and hope that all is well and out of review in time for the deadline.

RE/MAX Gold Coast Realty this past weekend held a whopping 35 open houses last weekend and will look to hold as many open as staff allows us for this weekend of the 10th. You can search for open houses on http://www.remax.com/ or request a list of open houses from me and I'll email them to you as the weekend gets closer.

As of today, March 31st, there are 545 condo's currently listed active from $205,000 to $2.75million.

Happy house hunting! Visit my home buying tips every buyer should know for some studying.

Hoboken Real Estate | Home Buyer Tax Credit | Get The Facts

Real estate is heating up steadily and it is because of a combination of factors.

• One - the home buyer tax credit is expiring
• Two - interest rates are very low and we're not sure when they'll go up
• Three - Spring market is soon upon us
• Four - Distressed sales opportunities

Combine all of these incentives and the natural increase in market activity during spring, and we are going to see a very busy season. If you look in my past posts I've been reporting that sales activity and interest is way way up. Multiple offers are becoming more common and we're seeing some properties be snatched up after only a few days on the market... it will be very interesting to see how this projects into 1st and 2nd quarter sales.

If you are looking to buy in the near future, you need to know a few things.

Reminder : Important dates are April 30th and July 1st! Below are the facts:

Facts about the Homebuyer Tax Credit:

• You must have a signed purchase agreement for your home no later than April 30, 2010, and the transaction must closed before July 1, 2010.
• First-time buyers receive a credit of 10 percent of the purchase price, up to $8,000. You are considered a first-time buyer if neither you nor your spouse has owned a principal residence in the U.S. within the last three years.
• Buyers who owned and lived in their principal residence for at least five consecutive years of the last eight can receive credit of up to $6,500 when they contract to purchase a home before April 30, 2010, and close before July 1, 2010.
• The upper income limit to receive the full credit is raised to $125,000 for individuals and $225,000 for couples.
• If the purchase price is more than $800,000, the buyer is not eligible for the credit.
• There is no minimum income for claiming the credit. You qualify for the full credit even if you won’t owe any taxes for 2009 or 2010.
• You can claim the credit when you file your 2009 or 2010 tax return. And you can even apply the credit to your down payment for the purchase of an FHA-insured home.

Create your own profile on my website and start searching for properties all over New Jersey. Save searches, view full pictures and details without having to contact various companies or create many profiles - RE/MAX.com is one of the leading consumer websites for real estate in the industry. Plus, RE/MAX.com is one of the few sites that feeds off of all of the multiple listing services and compiles status updates and new listings almost immediately.

Go to www.myhobokenproperties.com

Scammers are keeping home buyers from their tax credits

The IRS reported that because of scammers looking to cash in on falsified home buyer tax credit claims, they've now had to change the original E-form required to file for the credit. Buyers who want to cash in on the tax credit of up to $8,000 for 1st time buyers, or for move up buyers with a credit of up to $6,500 must now file via mail.

This change is delaying the process for buyers to receive their tax credits by slowing down the turn around time. Before, buyers could've seen their refunds come back in as little as a month, it's now taking some states as long as 4 months. In addition, buyers are now required to submit additional documentation for proof such as proof of residency, a signed mortgage statement and a valid driver's license or photo i.d.

The IRS points out that taxpayers can still use the electronic forms available on its Web site or consumer sites such as TurboTax; they just have to print them out, attach the proof and mail everything in.

The IRS has posted the new form 5405. Click here to download.

Still, waiting 4 months for free money isn't too bad. When the program was first rolled out buyers had to wait a full year before they could file their claims.

Another sad story however for those scammers looking to take advantage of others. In October,

James Otto Price III was convicted of falsely claiming tax credits for 15 people. Since then it's believed their have been other arrests, but hopefully this new system will put an end to it.

Home Buyer Tax Credit - Extended?? Maybe SO!

Good News!

Late last week, I heard the news announcing that the Senate reached an agreement for the following items set forth on the home buyer tax credit bill:

To extend the $8000 First Time home Buyer Credit
To offer a tax credit to home buyers that are not first time buyers if they are buying a primary residence

To increase income limits - singles were increased from $75,000 to $125,000. Married couples filing jointly were increased from $150,000 to $250,000
One caveat - Home buyers must have executed contracts in hand by April 30th however you have until June 30th, 2010 to close.

Primary residence limit- Homebuyers who already own a home are only eligible if the home they are leaving has been used as a principal residence for 5 years or more


This is amazing news! Many Hoboken buyers did not qualify under current income limitations and also many home owners who want to sell and buy a home now have an incentive to do so in 2010 to receive the tax credit. While $6,500 is a lot less than the original $15,000 that was first proposed, this is still excellent news for everyone. While it's not set in stone yet, all signs point to a great likelihood that it will be passed soon. Keep in mind, there is always a chance that their will still be some changes to the above.





If only now Congress could pull their heads together to pass a bill making it mandatory that banks negotiate with homeowners that have an ALT A or ARM mortgage to a lower more affordable rate to keep them in their homes, then we could certainly avoid another major bump for home owners.