House Bill 261 Passes the Senate
Great news for the Georgia housing industry as Bill 261 has passed through the Senate and is on its way to a conference committee. The committee is in charge of working out the differences between the Senate version and the House version to create a decent compromise that incorporates factors from both. Hopefully we will see this updated version of the bill very soon and it will easily pass both the House and Senate again.
House Bill 261 authorizes a $3,600 home buyer tax credit for a six month period of time for the purchase of any single-family residence, including houses, townhomes and condos. This is not restricted to first-time homebuyers like the current $8,000 home buyer tax credit, and, in fact, is in addition to that credit. So first time home buyers in Atlanta would be eligible for a total of $11,600 in incentives for purchasing a new home. The legislation would be a great boost the housing market, which has already begun to see some positive numbers in the past month.
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Aaron Hofmann | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
The bill provides for a tax credit of 1.2% of the purchase price and is capped at $3,600. This tax credit will be spread over three years. One other current wrinkle in the bill is that this only applies to homes listed prior to the bill being signed into law. List after the governor signs it and your home won’t qualify. While I understand the intent, I think it will prove to lessen the effectiveness of the incentive as homebuyers who really want the credit will have to search for homes based upon when the home was listed.
Deborah dixon | Jul 5, 2009 | Reply
I see there are all kinds of programs for the home buyer, but they are still not selling because of the credit scoreing system, like myself I have the stable job, the 3.5% dwmpnt but credit score is 580 due to my bad choices but have payed dearly! And spent lots of money paying off who I owed , and now with the score change it’s even harder. When will they realize that unless they come up with a fresh start program or something homes will remain empty. Also America runs off people like me.yes the working poor.