Congress Hammers Senator Isakson's Homebuyer Tax Credit Amendment
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.
Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
Comments
We certainly don't blame you and I doubt any "single" politician can do much to help this situation. It will take our entire country taking responsibility and each individual taking a more conservative approach and living within their means. This will be a major adjustment for many of us, myself included. We're in this mess because too many of us borrowed too much and now that the economy has slowed we are unable to pay this back. There is plenty of blame to go around but that won't do anything to help in this situation.
By the way, have you been able to sell or lease your townhome? My neighbor leased his without permission, got caught, was fined and a lien placed on his property. That is rare but it does happen. I agree that having foreclosures in the neighborhoood is worse than renters. With foreclosures the community also loses much needed HOA fees. All the communities where I manage rental properties have some HOA restrictions for rentals. But all of them also have hardship clauses where my clients can petition to rent. Do you know if you community has that language in their covenants? If you qualify that might be a way to get it on the market for rent.
Good Luck.
Deryk
I am leasing my townhome now. I found a tennant and I actually have a positive cash flow (so far). As far as politics go, I am quite ticked off about this stimulus bill. Soon America will realize that obama is NOT the Mesiah. There is nothing in this bill to stinulate the housing market or create jobs. We will see how the stock market reacts to this on monday.
Take care .
Rich