14 Aug 08 
First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit
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The following information is gathered from www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com. Visit the website for additional information regarding the tax credit.
Who qualifies for the tax credit?
First-time homebuyers – buyers who have not owned a principal residence in the past three years (prior to the date of purchase). The tax credit can be applied towards the purchase of any type of home, however the purchase must be made between now and June 31, 2009.
How much am I eligible to receive?
Individual homebuyers with a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of $75,000 or less will qualify for the entire $7,500. Married couples with a MAGI of $150,000 or less, also qualify for the entire $7,500. Individuals with a MAGI of more than $95,000 and married couples with a MAGI of more than $170,000 are not eligible to receive the tax credit. For help calculating how much you are entitled to, see the examples provided for question 7 of the Frequently Asked Questions from federalhousingtaxcredit.com.
What exactly is a tax credit?
A tax credit is similar to a loan that is applied towards what the taxpayer owes. In other words, the money must be repaid back to the government. In this case the tax credit is interest free and must be paid back within 15 years, or when the house is sold.
If you are looking to buy a home, Visit NewHomesSection.com’s new homes for sale.
For additional home buying resources, see the federalhousingtaxcredit.com Home Buyer Resources.
Tags: federal housing tax credit, first time home buyers, home buying resources, individual homebuyers, MAGI, married couple homebuyers, modified adjusted gross income, new homes for sale, tax credit, tax credit eligibility
01 Jul 08 FHA Purchase Loans: Don’t “Assume” You Know It All Till You Read This!
Guess who’s back, back again? (name that artist)
It’s FHA and they are here to stay! (Hey that rhymed)
It is funny how cyclical things really are and in the mortgage world we are no different. Lending practices have now repeated themselves with decreasing home prices and FHA loans becoming the save all loan that every mortgage company is making it’s new darling.
FHA loans have accounted for more that 60% of the loans I have closed over the past 9 months and in my office it’s 75% or more. So it is no secret that FHA is the loan to choose for a variety of reasons:
- Fist Time Home Buyers can achieve a 100% purchase.
- You don’t have to have perfect credit to qualify.
- Gift money from relatives is encouraged.
- Refinance your upside down mortgage. (Short-Refi)
- Cash the equity out of your home up to 95% of the value.
- A buyer can qualify with a non-occupant co-borrower. (allows co-signers)
- New higher loan amounts for higher priced areas. (FHA LOAN LIMITS)
- The loan is assumable when the buyer goes to sell their home. (Hang on here!!!)
ASSUMABLE….. Wait a minute here you mean to tell me that if I sold my home the new buyer is going to take over my payments? Well that is partially right!
Here is how Assumable FHA Loans work……
Say you buy a property today for $100,000 and you get a new loan at an interest rate of 6.5% on a 30 year fixed term. You plug along and 5 years later you want to sell your home that is now worth $150,000 and the new buyer is trying to qualify can only get a 9% interest rate for their new loan.
You can offer the buyer the opportunity to “assume” your loan and take over your payments.
Putting it all together, the balance of your loan could be around $85,000 or so after you made the payments for 5 years and the new buyer would have to come up with the difference or $85K (minus) $150K (equals) $65K difference.
The benefits to the buyer are two fold, they get an interest rate that is much lower than the current interest rate they could get from a bank AND they have an accelerated pay off schedule because there is only 25 years remaining on the note!
Now this isn’t such a big deal when it really comes down to it because most people won’t fully understand the benefits until you try to sell your home. The hard part will be remembering that you can allow the new buyer to assume your loan.
I will leave you with this, when it comes to loans the FHA mortgage is one of the most expensive when it comes to closing costs. (I hear you, the costs can be financed but that doesn’t mean it isn’t expensive) To counter that cost in your mind it might help you to remember that your FHA mortgage is assumable so when you go to sell your property you will have a competitive edge over your competition allowing you to sell your home at top dollar in a timely fashion.
Get my Free Report :
“The FHA Loan Secret to getting up to $10K for Home Improvements when you Purchase Your New Home.”
Email me for your free report at Brent@brentlane.net
Brent Lane
The Lane Group
http://thelanegroup.blogspot.com
Tags: co-borrower, co-signer, fha loan limits, fha loans, first time home buyers, gift money, home equity, loan payments, mortgage loans, perfect credit, refinance, sell a home
