Home buyer tax credit extention approved

Home buyer tax credit extension approved

The first-time home buyer tax credit extension and expansion has won Congressional approval and is on its way to President Barack Obama.

He's expected to sign the measure as early as tomorrow.

The U.S. House of Representatives, this morning, voted 403 to 12 to pass the measure, following a unanimous U.S. Senate approval yesterday.

The measure was passed as part of unemployment benefits extension legislation H.R. 3548.

The extension and expansion of the popular first-time home buyers tax credit gives both new and move-up buyers a tax incentive to buy a home until at least April 30, 2010, longer for military personnel.

The new tax credit extends the existing credit for first-time homebuyers, worth up to $8,000, and offers a new credit of up to $6,500 for some existing homeowners.

The reduced credit for existing homeowners is available to those who have been in their current residence for a consecutive five-year period.

The new rule also raises the qualifying income limits to $125,000 for single taxpayers and $225,000 for joint taxpayers, from the current $75,000 and $150,000.

The maximum allowed home purchase price is $800,000.

A home buyer must have a sale agreement in hand by April 30 and close escrow by June 30, 2010.

Military personnel, deployed overseas for a minimum of 90 days in 2008 or 2009, would have until April 30, 2011 to claim the tax credit.

That's all good news for the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors says as many as 400,000 resale transactions (1.2 million for both new and resale homes) were completed specifically because of the first-time home buyer tax credit, since it began, and that put a dent in the housing inventory.

Home sales also add property and sales tax revenues to the coffers of local governments as reduced inventory helps boost prices and home values.

Fortunately, the tax credit also has been available at a time when often have been below 5 percent.

Fortunately, the first-time home buyer tax credit's availability has coincided with mortgage rates often hanging below 5 percent, according to Jeff Howard, CEO of Erate.com.

As the Nov. 30 tax credit deadline neared, reports from the Commerce Department, revealed new home sales slipped 3.6 percent in September and were down 7.8 percent from September 2008.

Tax credit history

As part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, Congress first created a $7,500 first-time home buyer tax credit for those who purchased a home between April 8, 2008, and July 1, 2009.

Later, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Congress extended the credit and raised it to an $8,000 tax credit for those who purchased homes by the current Nov. 30, 2009 expiration date.

By October 9, 2009, more than 1.2 million tax returns had claimed about $8.5 billion in the refundable tax credit, for both new and resale homes - according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

A TIGTA audit also revealed last month that nearly 90,000 taxpayers -- including nearly 600 children -- may have fraudulently enjoyed the credit, hoodwinking the government out of more than $600 million.

The new legislation includes provisions to stifle fraud after the Internal Revenue Service identified 167 suspected criminal schemes and opened nearly 107,000 examinations of potential civil violations of the first-time homebuyer tax credit.

Cheating the IRS is a federal felony that comes with a fine of up to $250,000 and three years in a federal pen, or both.

To combat fraud, a HUD-1 Settlement Statement will have to be attached to the tax return to secure the credit.

Government Program to Address Short Sales & Deed-in-Lieu

Why Many Loan Servicers Prefer Foreclosures to Modifications

Loan servicers by and large were not set up to modify mortgages on a large scale and the government has been too slow in providing guidance, as well as adequate incentives, to help them get there quickly. How loan servicers are compensated by the government, under the Making Home Affordable program, still remains inadequately defined. A sizeable investment is required on the part of the servicers to get a system in place in order to perform large scale loan modifications: they include the hiring and training of employees as well as the technology, both software and hardware, required to implement a massive modification program. The underlying system required to pursue foreclosures however is already in place and the servicers recoup their expenses off the top in the foreclosure process. Therefore modifications are not as appealing to the servicers as foreclosures where they can more readily recoup their initial cost outlay. Until the government establishes a way to make loan modifications a more cost effective path to pursue for the mortgage servicers, it is unlikely they will occur in sufficient numbers to make a meaningful difference.

Economy and Housing Market Rebounds, But Will It Last?

(10-30-09) Statistics revealed this week showed the U.S. economy fighting back from a long dark period, and prompted some analysts and officials to declare the recession over. But when it comes to the housing market in particular, analysts also warned the boost may be temporary.

Gross domestic product (GDP) rose at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the July through September period this year, the best quarter for growth in two years. GDP, which measures the value of goods and services made within U.S. borders, grew in part due to a jump in government spending on the strength of the February federal stimulus bill. Other factors included a rise in consumer spending, housing market balancing, and businesses ramping up production, all three of which were boosted due to government supports and programs like Cash for Clunkers.

The GDP’s spike comes after severe contractions in the past year. A committee of economists will make a formal determination of whether the recession, which began in December 2007, is officially over when more complete information is released.

At the same time, several sobering statistics bring these figures back down to earth. The unemployment rate continued to rise during the same time period, up to 9.8 percent in September. Last week, 530,000 people filed new applications for unemployment insurance benefits, according to the Labor Department. In the banking world, 106 bank failures have occurred this year, the most since 1992 and the height of the savings-and-loan crisis. Plus, an unknown number of banks remain open even with severely weakened assets and ability to do business.

Analysts also warn that since the growth in the last quarter was mostly on the strength of government recovery programs, it is unclear what will happen when these programs end.

On the housing front, there is good news. Over the quarter, investment in housing rose at a 23.4 percent annual rate. What that translates to is more modest than it sounds – the sector has been down so dramatically that even a bit of growth resulted in major percentages. The improvement is directly related to government policies, including the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, foreclosure prevention programs, and Federal Reserve moves that reduced mortgage rates.

Analysts note the boost, which included a 9.3 percent jump in existing home sales in September, is the latest sign that the housing market is rebounding. But again, it’s unclear if this is only a temporary effect. When the tax credit for first-time homebuyers expires at the end of November, sales may flatten or fall. Additionally, which rising unemployment, more borrowers may be pushed into foreclosure, more homes will be on the market, and prices will again fall.

For further reading:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/29/AR2009102900196.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/23/AR2009102303695.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/23/AR2009102303291_3.html

First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Fraud Detailed;
Taxpayers Advised to Expect Long Delays in Tax Returns

(10-29-09) While thousands of first-time homebuyers have pounced on the tax credit announced this year, and Congress determines whether to extend the deadline for claiming the benefit, a new report reveals that thousands of ineligible taxpayers have received millions under the program.

A report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), the agency that monitors the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), says several major violations have occurred:

• About 19,350 taxpayers claimed $139 million worth of tax credits for homes they had not yet purchased.
• About 70,000 taxpayers claimed more than $479 million in credits despite owning homes previously.
• Almost 600 people who claimed about $4 million in credits were not yet 18 years old.
• The youngest “taxpayer” claiming the tax benefit? Four years old.
In total, the report indicated approximately 90,000 erroneous claims totaling $622 million have been filed.
The IRS has recently implemented strategies to prevent fraud, and will continue to use them to weed out those manipulating the system. Also, the report did indicate that some of the apparently fraudulent claims will turn out to be correct.

But overall, the TIGTA is hesitant to declare a job well done in the past and future.
"Based on the administration of the credit to date, I am concerned about the IRS's ability to effectively administer the credits claimed within the original deadline, let alone within an extended deadline for certain taxpayers," said J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The statement was made as part of testimony before a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing looking at administration of the tax credit on Thursday.

As a result of the increasing problems with fraud, and this report, the IRS is now carefully and manually checking every tax return for those claiming the credit. That means taxpayers claiming this credit should expect long delays in receiving tax refunds next year.

For Further Reading:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fraud-found-in-home-buyer-tax-credit-claims-2009-10-22
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-buyer-tax-credit-refunds-delayed-for-months-2009-10-26

The Trouble with the First Time Buyer Tax Credit

(10-28-09) There’s been a rush of real estate activity, very similar to that which occurred at the conclusion of the cash-for-clunkers program, to complete purchase transactions before the wildly popular $8,000 “first time buyer” tax credit comes to an end. The program has made a difference by bringing sales forward and creating an environment of deadline-related urgency, though arguably a number of the affected purchases may have occurred without the tax incentive. Here is an overview of some of the problems associated with the tax credit:

The Cost, Including the Opportunity Cost

According to the IRS, nearly 1.4 million people have taken advantage of the first time buyer credit and from this total, approximately 350,000 sales can be directly attributed to the credit, according to the National Association of Realtors. Therefore the (estimated) real per transaction cost to taxpayers is 1.4MM credits used multiplied by the amount of the credit $8,000 (assuming the max credit amount was used), then divided by 350,000, which results in $32,000 for each purchase transaction that would not have other wise occurred without the presence of the tax credit. Wouldn’t $32,000 be a better long term taxpayer investment if spent on student loan financing as opposed to a temporary fix for housing? When the credit is extended, or worse expanded, the real per transaction cost will likely go even higher.

The Fraud

The Associated Press reported information released from the Treasury Inspector’s report indicating that 74,000 taxpayers who had claimed the first time buyer credit, amounting to some $500 million in claims, had been previous homeowners. Whether or not these taxpayers qualified under the program remains an open question, the program defines a “first time buyer” as someone who has not owned a primary residence in the previous three years. Which means that even real estate speculators who own investment property, rather than an owner occupied primary residence, could qualify under the program. Also, for the tax year 2008, some 19,000 returns had claimed the credit for homes not yet purchased, totaling some $139 million in claims. Claims for the tax credit were also made fraudulently in some 580 cases involving minor children ineligible to legally acquire property let alone qualify for the tax credit. Controls and safeguards under the program, as is the case with most government programs, are severely lacking.

Stealing Sales from the Future

Just as the Cash-for-Clunkers program proved, once these tax incentives are removed, the purchasing of the incentivised item will cease. In essence all that is accomplished is stealing transactions away from the future. The previously projected November 30th deadline for the first time buyer credit has been the spark for real estate activity in recent months and as a result, activity will slow once the incentive is ultimately removed and prices will again soften with a new wave of foreclosures and no new buyers.

Replacing Wall Street’s Misguided Financial Engineering with Washington’s Misguided Economic Engineering

At some point the economy is going to have to stand on its own feet, the government cannot forever inject taxpayer money, robbing from future generations, to support the bad decision making of the present one. The market should pick the winners and losers and restructure without the corrupt short-sighted CEOs on Wall Street making the call or Washington legislator’s who are unduly influenced by lobbyists making these decisions for Americans. The U.S. economy is dependent on consumer spending for 70% of its GDP and therefore needs a middle class with middle class jobs and wages supporting it. For decent jobs to return, private capital and investment need to flow in an environment free of massive government created distortions.

Not Prmitting the Needed Correction in Housing to Occure

The U.S. economy and tax system is already generously geared towards favoring real estate, how many more incentives are truly needed to prop it up? Both monetary and fiscal policy heavily promote real estate, from the massive support of the FHA, to bailing out the banks and GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to providing the very foundation for mortgage backed securities and outright purchases of treasuries to keep rates at record lows. On the tax side, from the mortgage interest deduction to the capital gains exclusion, what more should be done to promote homeownership in America. It may be time to let the chips fall on all bad housing bets.

Setting in Motion More Future Mortgage Defaults (AKA Remember the Jobs Problem)

What happens when many of these so-called first time buyers lose their jobs or can no longer afford to make their mortgage payments? Until the job market stabilizes, isn’t buying a home a risky proposition for all but the most secure in their jobs and presumably not a younger first time buyer at the beginning of their career, potentially needing to relocate in the process of seeking a job? The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is already taking on alarming levels of mortgage insurance risk, why add on to the pile putting taxpayer dollars further in jeopardy.

First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Applied to Down Payment

In the spring of 2009, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which operates under the supervision of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced that homebuyers using the first time buyer credit would be able to apply it at the close of a purchase transaction. This meant that those first time buyer’s who were purchasing with an FHA insured loan, could apply the credit at the time of closing towards their down payment as well as their closing costs. In an effort to further assist home buyers, individual state’s Housing Finance Agencies (HFA) are set up to offer loans for down payment and closing cost assistance to low and moderate income home buyers. The loans provided by the states could then be repaid immediately at closing through the use of the first time buyer tax credit, so the federal government, essentially, could repay the states. The problem with this scenario is that too many state’s Housing Finance Agencies are under-funded due to state budget constraints. Recently the federal government had announced plans to come to the rescue of the state’s housing finance agencies, introducing new plans to support the financing of their home buying programs. The government intends to establish a new bond purchase program for the state’s housing issues and will also improve the state’s housing agency’s ability to access credit sources for their existing bonds. For better or for worse, this should create even more interest and excitement around the so-called “first time buyer” tax credit.

New Appeals Process for Loan Modification Applicants

(Oct. 22, 2009) Last month the government announced enrollment of approximately 500,000 prospective borrowers in its trial modification plan under the Making Home Affordable Program which applies to loans falling under the Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac umbrella. Through the program, the loan servicer is paid a small subsidy or fee to complete the loan modification paperwork for the borrower and works with the mortgage investors. Though the reported federal subsidies are in place to promote loan modifications rather than proceeding with foreclosure, months after implementing the program it appears that many potential borrower’s who should have qualified under the program, are being wrongly denied modifications of their loan. Frustrated, after months of waiting and jumping through hoops during the modification process, many borrowers are often denied without any explanation and without a means thereafter to reverse the lender’s decision. This unsatisfactory outcome is about to change as the government has now recognized the problem and has begun requiring that lenders justify in some cases why they are unable to comply with the program’s guidelines in approving a borrower’s modification request. Because no one has been tracking the number of denials or requiring an explanation behind unfavorable decisions, it is difficult to determine how many potential modifications have been unjustly denied. However the Treasury Department firmly believes that far too many potential loan modification applicants have been wrongly denied when many in fact have qualified under the program guidelines.

To combat the problem the government has now requested that lenders establish an appeals process for loan modification applicants who have been denied. The GSEs have also been enlisted to help by setting up a system to audit denied modifications through a second look program. Furthermore, in an effort to enhance program metrics, the government is asking lenders who participate in the Making Home Affordable program to report why seemingly eligible borrowers have not been permitted to participate in the program and why they have not been offered a modification of their mortgage. Treasury has also taken the added step of setting up a hotline for government approved housing counselors to use in an effort to facilitate the process in the most pressing modification cases. The government is hoping to further incentivise lenders in their modification efforts by implementing harsh penalties upon lenders who deny modifications for applicants who should have otherwise been approved under the program’s guidelines.

The Loan Mod Blame Game: It’s Borrowers vs. Servicers

(Oct. 22, 2009) The Treasury Department’s Office of Homeownership Preservation will be reporting the results of the Making Home Affordable program’s trial loan modification efforts sometime in November or December. If the success rate of the program falls below expectations, look for some serious repercussions to follow. The loan servicers are very concerned about their performance level under the program and worry about the potential backlash if they do not meet expectations. Last spring the banking industry successfully fought off an attempt to give bankruptcy judges the authority to modify a homeowner’s mortgage terms, in what is frequently referred to as a “cram-down provision”, however if modification targets are not met, it is likely that this discussion could be revived.

The servicers claim that borrowers are the ones to blame in slowing down the process because they lack initiative and fail to follow through in their attempt to modify their mortgage. Borrowers who have initiated a loan modification do not provide all the paperwork necessary to complete the process and allow their trial modification to become a permanent one. Borrower motivation is frequently sited by the servicers as a key problem in getting them to follow through in returning calls and providing requested information in a timely manner. However borrowers frequently site their frustration with the servicers in getting them to respond and complaints run rampant that simply getting someone in servicing on the phone to help them is next to impossible. Lenders and servicers alike appear to be understaffed and the current staff is improperly and poorly trained to get the job done. Simple clerical errors, overlooked and lost documentation are all at the bottom of a number of rejected modification applications. The servicers had requested a more streamlined modification process and the government responded by reducing the number of documents which require signatures to just two. The majority of loan modification packages which are sent back to the servicers for deficiencies are typically for one of two reasons, either omitted documentation or clerical errors. The GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have responded by accommodating delinquent borrowers with a two month extension to provide required documentation to complete their loan modification.

Option-ARMs: The Loan Banks Wish They Had Opted Not to Do

(Oct. 8, 2009) The mortgage known as the option-ARM has been rapidly gaining momentum as the most troubling of all mortgages. Option-ARMs are producing a greater number of delinquencies and foreclosures than even loans within the sub-prime category. Although they account for a much smaller percentage of the total population of mortgages, when compared with sub-prime, option-ARMs appear to be far more problematic on a lender’s balance sheet. While the rate of default seems to have stabilized in the sub-prime loan category, the trouble with option-ARMs may only be gaining steam as the cycle of interest rate re-sets is just beginning. One million option-ARMs are on tap to re-set over the next four years and those loans appear to be heavily concentrated in areas which have proven to be hardest hit by the housing crisis, increasing their exposure and risk to falling property values. Options-ARMs comprise almost 40% of loans which are delinquent by 60 days or more in both Florida and Nevada and account for 28% of similar delinquencies in California and 20% in Arizona.

Commonly referred to within the mortgage industry as “pick-a-pays” these adjustable rate loans were primarily written for credit-worthy borrowers who wanted to control their monthly cash-flow by being given a variety of payment options to choose from. However, over half of option-ARM borrowers have opted only to make their required minimum monthly payment, as has been the characteristic of option-ARM borrowers traditionally. The tidal wave of re-setting option-ARMs looming on the horizon could serve to undermine a potential recovery in the housing market. Lenders, who could be faced with a flood of loan modification requests from soon-to-be re-setting option-ARM borrowers, must consider if a rate reduction, coupled with a principal reduction, along with an extended loan term might not even be enough to turn things around. Because many of these mortgages began with interest rates as low as 1%, there isn’t much room left to improve upon the rate now. Many option-ARM loans seem likely to fall into foreclosure as so many of the loans were structured to permit deferred interest (or negative equity) of up to 125% of the original loan amount. The resulting amount of negative equity which has accumulated makes it unlikely that option-ARM borrowers would have the ability to refinance into any of the programs currently available. Is it possible that some option-ARM borrowers may decide that their best option now may be to walk away?

Is the Government’s Solution Simply More Hair of the Dog?

(Sept.28, 2009) In an effort to get the economy back on track it seems the U.S. government is encouraging much of the same behavior that got us into this mess in the first place. The assault of federal programs launched appears to have one objective in mind and that is getting all Americans, collectively as consumers and businesses, to spend money we really do not have and shouldn’t be spending in the first place. The Fed’s intervention in purchasing treasury securities, along with purchases of mortgage-backed securities, has served to keep interest rates artificially low in order to encourage yet more borrowing. The first time buyer tax credit of $8,000 has sparked about a third of all purchase activity and an even higher percentage of sales activity, in the range of 64%, has involved distressed properties. Auto sales, similarly have been fueled by the wildly popular “cash for clunkers” program thereby depleting current inventories at the cost of snuffing out much in the way of future demand for vehicles.

The government has now taken over the role of the American consumer as the irresponsible runaway spender and the debt that’s reflected by the exploding deficit really belongs to the American people and its future generations. If the global economy is going to restructure as is desperately needed to cure the imbalances of production and consumption that persist, then current borrowers and consumers (i.e. the Americans) must become savers and producers and the current savers and producers (i.e. the Chinese) must become borrowers and consumers. Unfortunately the two nations are locked in a vicious co-dependent relationship where the Chinese people save and produce so Americans can in turn borrower and spend. Once the Chinese government cuts off the “debt junkie” that the United States has now become and instead chooses to spend its savings within its own borders and Chinese citizens crank up consumption of their products, that’s when the United States will truly begin to pay for the error of its ways.

Study Shows Reckless Cash-Out Refis Really to Blame

(Sept. 22, 2009) If you tuned into conservative talk radio last year a number of hosts had vitriolic words for the Housing and Community Development Act (1992) which was inspired by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 and required the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to force GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase a greater number of mortgages taken out by low and moderate income borrowers. The logic professed by the radio hosts was that this in fact had caused the mortgage crisis by making it possible for individuals to purchase homes they could not afford, ushering in the era of the sub-prime mortgage. However a new study released from MIT and Harvard University may conclusively dispel their theory.

It seems a perfect storm was set in motion for a cash-out refinancing bonanza when the combination of declining interest rates, skyrocketing property values and easy credit became available... (continued)

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• Some Unexpected Good News on the Housing Front - June 2008
• Homeowner's Equity Hits Historic Low - June 2008
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• FHA Mortgage Relief Plan Moves a Step Further
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• Sub-Prime Mortgage Mayhem
• Multi-Family Properties: Investing and Financing
• Credit Counseling - Is it Right for You?

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• Homeownership & Taxes: How Good Records Can Save You a Bundle
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• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Today, Part 2
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• Location: Rule #1 of Real Estate
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• Generating Cash Flow from Your Retirement Assets
• Maximizing the Use of Your Retirement Funds
• Money Management: Creating a Budget, Part 3
• Money Management: Creating a Budget, Part 2
• Money Management: Creating a Budget, Part 1
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• Commercial Real Estate: Mortgage Types
• Commercial Real Estate: Mortgage In’s and Out’s
• Commercial Real Estate: Terms
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• What’s Your Investment Personality?
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