Southwest Florida home buyers who already had home purchases under contract as of April 30, 2010 and who otherwise qualified for the first-time or move-up home buyer tax credit, but had not yet closed, have been given a break.
Thanks to an amendment to the home buyer tax credit program, these home buyers will now have until September 30, 2010 to close on their home purchases. Under normal circumstances, these buyers most likely would have closed on their purchases by the original deadline date of June 30th, but because of the huge number of mortgage applications filed, a huge backlog of in-process applications built up. This amendment gives them until September 30, 2010 to close on their home purchase and still qualify for the tax credit.
The “American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010,” which also extended unemployment insurance benefits includes this time extension. Senator Reid said this extension will allow lenders to clear a huge backlog of nearly 180,000 home buyer mortgage applications across the country.
National Association of Realtors President Vicki Golder said recently, “Since these applications were already in the pipe-line and included in the program’s cost, this extension of the closing deadline will not incur any further government costs.”
Judie Berger, an experienced Sarasota real estate agent welcomed the extension as a way to save a large number of pending home sales, particularly those involving short sale deals, which otherwise would be lost.
"More than just this program extension will be required to keep the nacent Floridareal estate recovery momentum moving forward," suggested Rich Stover, another Sarasota Florida real estate agent.
