According to Inman News, the Senate has approved an amendment of the homebuyer’s tax credit that will extend the closing deadline from June 30th to September 30th. What does this mean? Well, if you have a home under contract (and your contract was ratified on or before April 30), then you have until Sept 30th to close and receive the tax credit.
Concerns were growing (for good reason) that many homebuyers would not have their homes close in time to qualify for the initial deadline of June 30th. The backlog with lenders and underwriters has been a cause of much concern in Charlottesville and throughout the country.
The Inman article estimates that 1/3 of homebuyers shooting to earn the tax credit were being told by their lenders that they wouldn’t close in time.
This is welcome news for homebuyers as well as lenders, attorneys, and Realtors who have been scrambling to push closings through within the next 2 weeks. Besides the potential for an increase in fraudulent claims, I see this as a great move. (Note: We’ve heard through the grapevine that the government is performing massive amounts of audits to try to catch fraudulent claims.)
If you do qualify for the homebuyers tax credit, here’s a link to IRS Form 5405 that will help guide you through the process of applying for your credit.
UPDATE, from Inman:
CLARIFICATION: While the Senate voted to accept the amendment that would extend the closing deadline for the tax credit, the Senate has not yet voted on the amended bill itself, which deals with a range of issues from extending unemployment benefits to Medicare funding. According to Politico, Democrats have trimmed $60 billion in spending from the bill in the hopes of passing it this week.