In keeping up with the latest news, there was been a significant change in one of the current Administration’s tax credit programs. Yesterday, the Secretary of HUD announced that FHA is going to permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment when obtaining a government insured mortgage.
This is a change in the way that the program had been setup when it arrived as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The law states that qualifying homebuyers may claim up to $8,000 (or $4,000 for married individuals filing separately) on either their 2008 or 2009 tax returns. Before this change, homebuyers would have to wait until they filed their 2008 or 2009 returns to receive the credit. Now, FHA consumers can access the homebuyer tax credit fund when they close on their home loan so that the cash can be used as a down payment.
The details on this are not scheduled for release until next week. We’ll have a more in-depth post on this next week, but wanted to get the information out there, as this can significantly impact the market for some buyers. Yay!