NEWS 25 WEHT Evansville, Henderson, OwensboroTax Credit Extension: Boost To Local Economy?

Tax Credit Extension: Boost To Local Economy?

story by Jamie Rose

TRI-STATE - If you want to be a homeowner... there's new incentives to buy a house.

An extension is approved to the first time homebuyer tax credit, and if you're a second time homebuyer you could get some cash.

NEWS 25 talks with local experts, seeing how the tax credit helps the local economy.

First time homebuyers now have till July 1, 2010 to cash in on the $8,000 tax credit.

But this time around second time homebuyers have the chance to get some money back too.

Owner of F.C. Tucker Realtors, Kathy Briscoe, tells NEWS 25, "We got some really good momentum going with the first time homebuyers' tax credit."

And that momentum can now continue.

President Barack Obama signed an extension for the $8,000 first time homebuyer tax credit, but this time around there's an expansion too.

If you have lived in a home for five consecutive years in the past eight years, you now qualify for a $6,500 tax credit.

Briscoe says this expansion now caters to those move up buyers too.

"We'd get a domino effect where we sell the first time homebuyer house and then we've got a couple move up buyers ahead of them," explains Briscoe. "It's a trickle up."

Chris Dickson with the Evansville Area Association of Realtors says there's been some pent up demand among those wanting to move into a bigger house, but now with this expansion, he feels it will get not only more buyers out on the market but also sellers.

"It's pumped some enthusiasm back into the market," says Dickson.

Dickson says in October 2009 there were 320 homes sales across Vanderburgh, Warrick, Gibson, and Posey County.

This is an almost twelve percent increase from October of 2008.

Dickson tells NEWS 25, "The sellers need to get on the market now because the buyers are really energized."

But we learn this new extension isn't only going to be a boost to the real estate market.

"People that build washing machines refrigerators, and it helps the carpet manufacturers... it helps small business," says Briscoe.

But this tax credit won't last forever.

If you qualify, you will have to sign a contract by April 30, 2010, and have till July 1, 2010, to close on the home in order to cash in.