Hot off the presses! Seriously big news about the $8,000 tax credit! READ THIS!
The Federal Housing Administration (F.H.A.) is going to permit its lenders to allow homeowners to use the $8,000 tax credit as a downpayment.
“We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a downpayment,” Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said yesterday. According to Donovan, the FHA’s approved lenders will be permitted to “monetize” the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.
To read the full article, click on http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2009/05/re_summit
This is a major breakthrough for “first-time home buyers” (those who have not owned a home in the past three years). Many otherwise qualified buyers have been waiting to save a down payment in order to buy their first home, knowing the tax credit would be waiting for them if they could make it happen before December 1, 2009.
Now, there’s no need to wait. In fact, it’s probably a good idea to get started shopping for their first home now. The deadline for closing has not changed; it is still December 1, 2009, and that is barely more than 6 months away.
