Congress Hammers Senator Isakson’s Homebuyer Tax Credit Amendment
February 13th, 2009 categories: Mortgage News, Real Estate News
Just when I think someone has done something that may really stimulate the housing market the revised bill comes out from negotiations between the House and Senate with a mere shadow of the amendment proposed by Senator Isakson. According to the LA Times Blog the $15,000 tax credit has been reduced to $8,000 and is now back to crediting ONLY first time home buyers. The only three improvements I see are that it extends the deadline to homes purchased by August 31, 2009, is $500 more than the current credit and does not have to be paid back (I’m sure there will be strings attached to the payback part). In my opinion this is much too weak to provide the kind of stimulus we need to get housing back on track. This is not the final version so there is still time for Congress to make more changes. What do you think? Let us know. We’d love to hear opinions from all sides.
