$8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit at a Glance

• The tax credit is for first-time home buyers only.
• The tax credit does not have to be repaid.
• The tax credit is equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000.
• The credit is available for homes purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009.
• Single taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 qualify for the full tax credit.
• The tax credit is refundable - or in other words, you can ammend a previously filed tax return.

Actually this is known as, the Economic and Housing Recovery Act of 2008.

The provisions of this act are superseded by the $8,000 first time buyer tax credit.

For first time home buyers, the federal government is allowing a $ 7500 interest free loan, to be paid back over 15 years. There are a couple of minor issues with this.

First - First time home buyers are buyers that have not owned a home for the last three years.

Second - The $ 7500, is your money, buyers must come up with the $ 7500 to start with. So, the first year, you save $ 7500 in taxes, and for the rest of the payback period, your taxes increase by $500 per year, to pay back the loan.

It is a free loan, and there is no reason not to take advantage of it, but unfortunately it is not money up front.

For more information, check out these links.

Summary Fact Sheet

Questions and Answers

We started this blog to give out some helpful information about our community, and about the real estate market in our local area. Hopefully this will turn in to a good dialog about our community, and the interesting facts about this area of Pennsylvania.

Please if you have any information you would like to share, please send me a comment, and we will see that it gets posted.

Dee and Dave Koeger