Home Buyer Tax Credit for All Home Purchases?

The $8,000 home buyer tax credit that was passed eariler this year but only provides a tax credit for people who purchase their first home might be expanded to include all home purchases.

Not only will it be expanded to include any home buyer of any home but the credit will also be increased to $15,000. An idea that might help put an end to the weak housing market which has been made weaker with the recent sharp increase in mortgage rates.

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga,  introducted the legislation to expand the housing credit this week. The lgislation immediately picked up bipartian support by Senators Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Jim Bunning, R-Ky., Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., Chris Dodd, D-Conn., John Ensign, R-Nev., Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, James Risch, R-Idaho, and David Vitter, R-La.

“The man who is transferred from Missouri to Georgia can’t sell his house in Missouri, can’t come to Georgia and can’t take the transfer. His employer can’t afford to buy the house and hold it for him because of the proliferation of inventory that is owned,” Isakson said. “Today, in the United States, one in two sales made every day is a short sale or a foreclosure. That is an unhealthy market, and it is continuing to precipitate a downward spiral in values, loss of equity by the American people and a protracted, difficult economic time for our country.”

The National Association of Realtors and the Housing Working Group of Business Round-table also has endorsed the legislation to strengthen the housing market.

Let’s hope the legislation become law and they find the money to pay for it by making cuts elsewhere. The last thing we need is to further increase the deficit and drive long term interest rates even higher, which will have a negative effect on the housing market in the long run.