Word: homely
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...credit has helped breathe life into the comatose housing sector and that its extension is critical. "Failure to act now could derail the fragile housing recovery even before it has time to take root, " said Jerry Howard, president and chief executive of the National Association of Home Builders, in a recent statement. (See six year-end tax tips...
Congress is mulling plans to extend the $8,000 first-time home buyers' tax credit to April 30 (which covers home purchases closed by June 30) and to allow individuals with incomes of up to $125,000 (or $250,000 for couples) to apply for the credit, up from the previous threshold of $75,000. Also, a proposal is on the table to offer a new credit - $6,500 - to move-up buyers who have lived in their home for at least five years. The Senate is near a vote on its version, which includes an extension and expansion...
...analysts wonder if the $11 billion price tag for the credit's next phase is worth it. Some say many of the people using the tax credit would have purchased a home anyway...
...know how much of the success you would attribute to the [tax-credit] program and how much of it would have happened anyway because [home] prices went down significantly and interest rates went down at the same time, so the affordability became much better even without the program," says Bill Norwalk, a tax partner with Ireland San Filippo...
Even if the tax credit is extended, don't expect it to trigger a quick housing rebound. Although home prices have plunged about 30% on average from their peak in mid-2006, with certain markets in Florida, California and Nevada seeing prices plummet as much as 70%, they haven't troughed yet. With foreclosures still rising and unemployment expected to approach 10.5% in mid-2010, home prices are expected to tumble another 10% over the next six months before bottoming, says Robert Stevenson, managing director at Fox-Pitt Cochran Caronia Waller. And he expects prices to remain depressed until...