The home buyer tax credit is due to end April 30th. The question is will it be extended again?
The first $7,500 tax credit was passed in 2008 and required first-time buyers to repay the credit over 15 years. A few months later in 2009, Congress expanded the credit to a maximum of $8,000 that didn’t have to be paid back.
At the end of last year, Congress extended the benefit again until April 30 with an extra two months on top of that to close. A new credit of $6,500 was added for move-up buyers, too.
Now representatives of the housing industry are lobbying for another extension. Some experts, including Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, who supported the earlier credits, think the time has come to let it go.
“It’s worn out its benefit,” he says. “If you extend it again, it isn’t going to do much, and what you’re doing is providing a tax break to folks who bought anyway.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Nick Timiraos (02/22/201
This could be big news. If CHFA is paying the down payment, Fannie is paying the closing cost and the Fed is giving you $8000 I think it’s time to buy a house. The only way this deal could get better is if Oprah Winfrey throws in a free car.
Fannie Mae, the largest provider of residential home funding in the United States, announced Friday that it would pay the closing costs on purchases of foreclosed homes in its inventory.
The government-controlled company said buyers of qualified properties will get up to 3.5 percent in closing costs, or an equivalent amount for the purchase of new appliances.
The goal of Fannie is to clear out the nearly 50,000 properties it has in inventory— listed on HomePath.com, the Web site created by Fannie Mae last year to sell the growing number of foreclosed homes.
“Attracting qualified buyers to the market and reducing inventory of vacant homes is critical to stabilizing neighborhoods and helping the market recover,” said Terry Edwards, executive vice president for credit portfolio management, in a statement.
Denver Living Streets are vibrant places where people of all ages and physical abilities feel safe and comfortable using any mode of travel (walking, biking, transit, or private auto). While Living Streets are designed to maximize the efficiency of a corridor’s person-trip capacity (compared to solely auto-trip capacity), they are also intended to integrate with the use and form of adjacent development to achieve great destinations for people—not just the movement of people.
By supporting multi-modal access, Living Streets provide a more sustainable transportation balance than just relying on private autos. By integrating the street with the adjacent built environment, Living Streets add value to communities. By encouraging the creation of great places with transportation options that work for everyone, Living Streets can simultaneously promote healthier living, economic development, and increased mobility instead of enhancing one of these goals at the expense of the others.
Between August 2008 and October 2009, nearly 300 people took the living streets survey. Because this is not a random sample, these statistics are not representative of the Denver population as a whole, more of a sample of Denver residents who are interested in living streets. The survey results have a confidence interval of +/-6% with a 95% confidence level.
How do you primarily get to work:
2006-08 Denver Census data:
Drive alone
27%
69%
Bike
23%
2%
Transit
19% (14% bus, 5% rail)
8%
Walk
12%
4%
Other
19%
17%
(Telecommute, carpool, no job, etc)
What would it take to get you to drive less?
Better/more bike infrastructure
63%
Improved bus service
54%
More mixed use
51%
Ability to walk to rail
48%
Free public transit
43%
Better/more sidewalks
42%
Streetcars
41%
Higher gas prices
26%
More TOD housing
21%
Higher parking fees
16%
More transit park-n-rides
14%
What are the most important steps (scale of 5-1) to improve travel corridors?
Average scores
Use traffic lanes for other modes
4.0
Improve transit environment
3.9
Improve streetscape
3.7
Develop mixed use
3.7
Add bike lanes on collectors
3.6
Improve transit operations
3.3
Dedicated transit lanes
2.9
Manage vehicle access
2.5
More on-street parking
2.4
Widen roads for more lanes
0.6
Nearly all respondents, 97%, said they would be willing to change their travel behavior as a result of supportive options. When asked what is the one thing that would most influence your decision to change travel behavior (i.e., drive less), out of 240 total responses:
45% were related to improving transit service and infrastructure
33% were related to improving bike infrastructure, access and parking
12% were related to improving pedestrian infrastructure and access
7% were related to having more mixed use destinations in walking distance
3% were related to general streetscape enhancements
