Eugene Loan Guy

The $7,500 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit will most likely be going under re-organization as a result of the Stimulus Bill that is expected to pass and be signed into law as early as this weekend. Although details regarding the tax credit have been a bit sketchy, in what has been released so far, the tax credit has been scaled down to $8,000 from $15,000, or 10% of the value of the home for any first time home buyers who purchase homes from the start of the year until the end of November. For couples with incomes above $150,000 and single filers with incomes above $75,000, the program starts phasing out.  Buyers will have to repay the credit if they sell their homes within three years.  There are still a lot of details about this plan to be released.

There are a number of other changes that we are looking for either in this bill or follow up legislation, such as the re-instatement of seller funded down payment assistance programs, re-negotiation of up-side-down mortgages to those that are paying on time, and possible ability of bankruptcy judges to judicially modify mortgages. I reserve judgment on the last program.

President Obama has promised that there will be relief for current homeowners coming soon. There is a lot on his plate and it will be interesting to see how some of these problems are handled.

Getting the Real Estate business back to normal, is the most important thing that those of us involved in this industry are interested in, however, the current economic problems go far beyond Real Estate. I will continue to keep on top of what is happening in our arena.

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