Congressman Peter DeFazio, our local congressman recently responded to a Eugene Oregon area Realtor® about extending the First time Home Buyer Tax Credit. The Realtor® is in favor of extending the tax credit because of the beneficial effect it is having on the local real estate market. Congressman Defazio had this to say about extending the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit:

There are over a dozen bills currently proposed in Congress to extend the tax credit or expand it, including legislation to extend the credit until June of 2010. In the House of Representatives, there is a rule that requires legislation to be deficit neutral. This was waived for ARRA and thus did not apply to the current $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit. The popularity of the tax credit has driven the cost close to $15 billion this year, nearly three times the estimated cost when it became law. Any extension of this tax credit needs to be paid for, and thus far no acceptable offset has been identified.

It seems pretty clear to me that Congressman DeFazio is against extending the FTHB Tax credit in its current form. It has always been my opinion that the congressman was a mostly fiscal conservative and it is easy to see his reasoning in this area. The expansion of the tax credit to include more than first time home buyers was also addressed in the letter.

There is also legislation that would provide a $15,000 tax credit to all home buyers, regardless of income, which is estimated to cost $50 to $100 billion annually. This expansion of the tax credit is even more difficult to offset.

It is my opinion that the Congress will not extend the tax credit and people that are waiting to see if they will, might be waiting too long to get started on a purchase to take advantage of the current program. Right now, the FTHB tax credit will allow the home buyer to either amend their 2008 tax returns and get the rebate in about 2-3 weeks or file with their 2009 tax return and either offset taxes due or get the rebate then. I was impressed with the following information from Congressman DeFazio:

A recent treasury report, released early in September, showed that 3,500 Oregonians have amended their 2008 taxes to access this credit immediately. The combination of increased affordability of home prices, low interest rates, and the tax credit has helped housing sales

Now that it is clear how our local Congressman feels about the tax credit, isn’t it time you got ready to take advantage of the program? Call me today at 541-342-7576/541-221-3455 Cell or e-mail me to set up an appointment. The program has less than two months remaining, are you going to miss out?