According to the Wall Street Journal, the "tax credit for first-time home buyers increases from $7,500 to $8,000 and will not have to be repaid" (like it was in the previous plan to help housing that passed last year). A Wall Street Journal blog is reporting that the new credit is retroactive to December 31, 2008 and that first-time buyers who used the tax credit in 2008 will still have to pay it back over a 15-year (interest free) grace period. I bet some of the new buyers who jumped into the market late last year are feeling like that got the short end of that stick!
Fortunately for those of us living in Austin, the median price of a home is still low compared to many parts of the country, so the $8,000 should mean more to first-time buyers here. Anecdotal signs are that things have picked up slightly from the end of last year, but we'll just have to wait and see where the data comes in.
On the national level, if rates stay low, and foreclosures are reduced (through the administration's new initiative), we could definitely see a bottoming in national home prices sooner rather than later. The big wild card right now is unemployment...but if you have the staying power, it seems to me that now is a pretty great time to buy low...
