If anyone is in the lending/mortgage biz, do you have any insight to whether or not the tax credit will be extended?

Looking to buy in SoCal. The houses are flying off the market in the price range I'm looking at. This is mostly investment purpose but I will live in it for 3-5 years likely. A guy I was playing with the other night said that Lake Arrowhead is easier to get into that the rest of the I.E. and that prices will rebound rather quickly in that community (compared to rest of I.E.) for various reasons. I have been looking from Riverside, Ontario and even Fontana but each house has a billion offers on them when I inquire.

Thoughts?

*Long time G-F pre-qualified for 100k and I am for 175k. We are looking to buy one each, live in one and rent the cheaper one.

If it is not extended expect demand to go down and prices to drop.

I have heard it has helped but not to the extent that people think. Housing is looking better but because savvy investors are getting in buying 10 property's at a time while first timers are struggling to get in like me. I'm not much of a socialist (lol) but I would like to take advantage of this program for sure and it's looking bleak for me every day that I'm not in escrow.

Other people have said the program HAS been great and is doing wonders for housing... I hope they extend it.

It's not being socialist to want to get your own money back.

It's certainly a boon to the housing market, but at some point you have to cut it off, the money has to come from somewhere and with the initiatives being passed through this administration, free money ran out a long time ago.

I dont want to start a new thread for a simple questions so im going to bump this.

I'm a first time home buyer, i qualify for the full credit. I have been told several different things about the credit.

1. I have been told if i receive $500 from my taxes every year then i would receive $8500 this(2010) year. AKA if i pay $1000 taxes a year i would receive $7000 this year.

2. I have been told that they take $8K of my income and make it tax exempt. If i pay $400 of taxes on $8K Of my income, then i would receive an extra $400 back on my taxes.

I think #1 is right, but then again im also hoping for #1 to be right. Better to make sure #1 is right when playing around with $8k.

It's #1. Yay, free maney.

I don't think they are going to announce/decide if they are going to extend it or not until it gets much closer to the deadline. Not until at least the end of Oct. or start of Nov. They want to keep the demand that is currently in the market. First time/starter homes are selling really fast in my area right now. There is a fair amount of foreclosures that are 5 or less years old priced around 80k-90k. These all typically sold new for 150k-200k. Unless I was paying cash I would be very nervous if I waited more than a week or so to get something under contract if you want to be sure and close by 11/30. Also, if possible I would recommend scheduling the closing on 11/23 at the latest. That way if there are any delays(which seem to be common lately) you will have a couple days to play with to make sure you can still close by 11/30.

I think the way you should look at it is if you were going to buy a house if only it were ~11k cheaper (assuming ~25% tax rate) then you should do it anyways. If your plans in no way had house or buy involved, avoid because this is not free money. However, I will say that the cash incentive can significantly increase the ROI on a property because of how dramatically your basis in downpayment is decreased if you include the 8k so it can certainly make houses that didn't make sense, make a lot of sense.

Beyond that, research research research, and never trust some guy saying houses are booming in this area buy now. Trust numbers, census, a large pool of appraisers, and your own gut.

There is a ton of stipulations on the tax credit, one of them being you cannot have a combined income of 150k+

I closed on a house on May 15th. I had pushed back filing my 2008 return so that I could collect this year as opposed to waiting for a year. The IRS has yet to clear my credit, demaning more and more documentation and proof of residence, etc.

It has to be your primary residence to collect the $8000 just FYI.

It has to be your primary residence, but the only proof they require is your name on the utility bills, not really strict on that

Sorry to bump a very old thread.

I bought the house, filed my taxes with H&R block and had my normal taxes directly deposited into my bank account a few days later. The lady at H&R said you had to mail in the 8k tax credit, no efile(TRUE). She prepared the form, only thing i had to do was put a stamp on it and mail it. I send it Certified mail, still have the reciept. It says on the USPS website it was delieved Febuary 9th. Today is Early May and and i havent recieved the refund.

I go to the wheres my refund part of the IRS website, enter my social security number and $8,000 and it doesnt give me any information.

Any advice?

Did you just mail in the form or did you file an amended tax return? I believe you need to file an amended return since you had already filed previously.

Amended tax return.

Above is straight from the IRS site. I've heard some rumblings that it's taking an unusually long time to get refunds currently but nothing specific.

Friday May 14th we received our $8K refund in our checking account.

I snail-mailed my taxes out on April 14th so it took them less than a month to refund me.

We sent in our 3 page settlement statement/HUD-1 form all signed and everything.

Did you send in all the required paperwork? I expected this refund to take much longer but was pleasantly surprised to have it Friday.

I got in touch with the IRS who said my case was being 'processed' and they had no more specific details on my status. They told me they have 12-16 weeks to approve or deny me....which is June 1st.

I sent in my tax forms in late March and am still waiting for my federal return. I just assumed it was taking longer because of the 8k credit. I checked online and they said it should come by May 25th so hopefully I'll see something soon.