President Obama signed a revised home buyer tax credit into law today. Before I get too far into this, let me clarify that we are in the business of helping people buy and sell homes and this tax credit is definitely good for our clients today – maybe not tomorrow, but at least for today. As such, we will do whatever it takes to help them take advantage of any misguided government giveaway program that they come up with in Washington. But you know a government spending program is a bad idea when the New York Times comes out against it.
The original program, set to expire at the end of the month, provided an $8,000 tax credit to first time home buyers who made less than $75,000 individually or $150,000 jointly. The new program extends the credit until the end of April, raises the income limit to $125,000 individually or $225,000 jointly, and also introduces a $6500 credit for people who already own a home and want to buy another one. The reason for the inclusion of people who already own homes is…well, they just want to spread our wealth around.
The NAR is jumping for joy at the success of their lobbying campaign – over 500,000 realtors begged congress for this handout. And I assume they will be lined up in the spring with their hands out yet again for the third sequel to this horror show. I can only imagine the concept: Ckash 4 Shacks – a tax credit for bulldozing your house and replacing it with a house that has energy efficient windows.