Bill to increase $8k homebuyer credit to $15k, remove restrictions

Oh for god's sake...

When will these idiots grasp the fact that prices were TOO HIGH, and that trying to reinflate housing prices to artificially high levels will simply delay a much needed correction.

faztcobra said: Now if I could just get all borrowers to mean mean ALL borrowers...or at least get an exemption. I'm recently divorced, ex-wife kept the house and refi'd out of my name, but I wouldn't qualify because I owned a home in the last 3 years. I'd like to jump on this gravy train.

Nowhere in the article does it say the credit next year will be only for "first time" buyers. Is it possible, they are removing this restriction as well?

15K would be enough to avoid pmi in TX w/o anything down. lol Maybe combined with down payment assistance, etc you could get the house for free.

LOL not surprising the idiot senator proposing this bill is a former Realtor...

more info said: 5/21/09 Yesterday U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., introduced an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill that seeks to stimulate the nation’s declining housing market by expanding the current $8,000 homebuyer tax credit to include all individuals who purchase a home in the next year.

Specifically, Isakson’s amendment would expand the current $8,000 homebuyer tax credit so that it applies to any buyer of any home, not just first-time buyers. The amendment also would eliminate the income caps of $75,000 for an individual and $150,000 for a couple under the current tax credit so that there is no income limit for eligibility. Finally, the amendment would extend the tax credit to June 10, 2010, and would still allow homebuyers to claim the credit on their 2008 tax return.

“By removing the income and first-time buyer restrictions from the current homebuyer tax credit, I am confident many more buyers will take advantage of this tax credit and we will have a significant improvement in the housing market and in our economy,” Isakson said. “As has happened in 1968, 1974 and 1990-1991, housing took America into a recession and it was only when the housing market recovered that the America economy improved.”

Isakson has pushed hard for a non-repayable tax credit for homebuyers because he knows that it will work. In the mid-1970s, America faced a similar housing crisis when a period of easy credit and loose underwriting flooded the market with new construction. Interest rates rose, the economy slowed and America was left with a three-year supply of vacant homes. Congress responded by passing a $2,000 tax credit for anyone purchasing a new home for their principal residence. Isakson, who was in the real estate industry in Atlanta at the time, says the results were clear and swift as home values stabilized, housing inventory dropped and the market recovered.

Last year, Isakson introduced legislation to specifically target those homes that were causing the unprecedented increase in housing inventory by offering tax credits to individuals purchasing a foreclosed home or a home where foreclosure is pending. In April 2008, the Senate passed legislation to stimulate the nation’s declining housing market that included Isakson’s proposal. However, the final version of the legislation that was signed into law included only a $7,500 tax credit for first-time homebuyers that must be repaid over a 15-year period.

On Feb. 4, 2009, the Senate unanimously approved an amendment by Isakson to the economic stimulus bill would have provided a direct tax credit to any homebuyer who purchases any home. The amount of the tax credit would be $15,000 or 10 percent of the purchase price, whichever is less. During conference negotiations between the House and Senate on the final version of the bill, Isakson’s $15,000 tax credit for all purchasers of any home was removed. Instead, House and Senate negotiators made only small modifications to the first-time homebuyer tax credit that was enacted in 2008 as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

Isakson spent more than three decades in the real estate business, beginning his business career in 1967 when he opened the first Cobb County, Ga., office of a small, family-owned real estate business, Northside Realty. Isakson later served as president of Northside for 20 years, presiding over the company’s growth into the largest independent residential real estate brokerage company in the Southeast and one of the largest in America.

Are you F'in kidding me?

Why should we expect someone to have a good credit rating, a down payment, and a job to get a house. What kind of world do we live in?

Lets take a line from Billy Joel

"Dont you know about the new fashion honey?
All you need is ben to print a whole lotta money.
Its the next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways"

codename47 said: Count me in the "yeah,so what camp" If the banks require a 740+ and a job to get a loan and home values still need to drop another 30% and 7M+ people still remain out of work, who really cares? This won't solve the fundamental problems of oversupply and no jobs.

So short is our "collective" memory. You forget, the "banks" is the US Feds --> the united socialist states of america now own/have an ownership interst in many financial companies/banks. If the government wants to get loans to people to buy houses (in addition to the grants its handing out via these tax credits), you better believe the good ol (new?) USS of A will make it happen, comrade.

Everyone deserves to be a home owner, whether they have a job or not . . . right? Soon we'll hear that unemployment benefits have been exetended indefinitely and have also increased across the board by the amount of one's mortgage payments. Nobody deserves to work...errr... suffer.

dawndelion said: Free homes in Detroit!!

It's funny because it's true.

dawndelion said: faztcobra said: Now if I could just get all borrowers to mean mean ALL borrowers...or at least get an exemption. I'm recently divorced, ex-wife kept the house and refi'd out of my name, but I wouldn't qualify because I owned a home in the last 3 years. I'd like to jump on this gravy train.

Nowhere in the article does it say the credit next year will be only for "first time" buyers. Is it possible, they are removing this restriction as well?

from the article: Isakson’s bill will make the credit available to all borrowers, not only borrowers who haven’t owned a home in the previous three years as is the case under current law.

because not having a job requirement will make it ok?
No, it isn't that the job requirement is a bad thing, it is that the politicans are focusing their time on fixing the symptoms and not the problems. Fix the job situtation and the housing situation will start correcting itself.

My wife and I bought "our" first house, but not MY first house in April, so I'm getting a kick, etc

Heres an example. I take you to a vending machine which sells the 22 Oz coke cans for $100 each, will you buy these? Now Obama comes in.. says people cannot afford coke, pulling down economy. So he hands you a $100 gift card exclusively for purchase of coke form vending machine. would you buy it now?

And think who lost money, taxpayers probably lost $200, $100 given to you, another $100 in collection of taxes, administration and management of program that gives you $100.

Who gained, you the taxpayer gained maybe $1.00 that coke should have costed. $99.00 went to vendor and manufacturer of coke.

The problem with subsidies is that the benefit captured by end users will be small percentage of cost.

SantaLink said: Will this be a pay-as-you-go bill? If so, where does the money come from?

It comes from as we go

tripleB said: SantaLink said: Will this be a pay-as-you-go bill? If so, where does the money come from?

It comes from as we go

I just past go, where's my damn $200

nycll said: The best consumer spending stimulus is to give every one of the 300 million citizens $1,000 to spend. The best overall stimulus is to build infrastructure.

The best way to deal with the housing mess is to introduce non-dischargeable first lien mortgages. Offer this new product to all modifications and as alternative to new loans.

Kind of O/T, but I really hope that everyone who gets a mortgage write down receives a 1099 for the forgiven debt.

So every time anyone buys a house the govt will give them $15k (presumably once per year)? Do I understand that correctly? If that's true, they will go broke in a year. Actually, they're already broke. So let's say that their printing machines will overheat and combust.

dongky said: I don't think I'll wait that long as home prices will be up there then.
I wanna take advantage of this 8k tax credit to buy a bigger house. But how can my wife foreclose our home (house is under her name; her dad co-signed)? Just stop paying?

I'm sure her dad will REALLY appreciate the hit on his credit score for this one...

howie888 said: how about just turning the 7500 interest free loan into a credit =)that happened already, for 2009 purchases

Hans23 said: The bill to cap 30 year fixed mortage rates at or below 5% for the next two years could help and extending the time limit of 8k credit to mid of next year would help too.

I don't think the government can really regulate the markets. Although I would love to get a mortgage <5% rather than almost 6% in the last few days...

The best bill currently is the Families reunity something act.
Wannabe immigrants are sitting with billions of dollars, living frugally in apartments just bcos they are a non-immigrant status.
grant green cards to these legally present people and let them bring the economy up.