Extension of Home Buyer Tax Credit Until September? H.R. 4213 Provision Would Extend the Deadline For Closing

The home buyer tax credit is set to expire at the end of this month. In reality, that train has come and gone for many people with the passing of the April 30, 2010 deadline. That was the date by which qualifying buyers had to have their home purchase under contract with a second deadline for the closing of that transaction by June 30, 2010.

Last Wednesday the Senate approved a three-month extension, giving buyers until Sept. 30 to close. However, it is attached to another bill (HR4213 - American Jobs and Closing LoopholesAct of 2010....how's that for a name?) that still has to be passed by the House. The extension would apply only to buyers who met the April 30deadline to have signed purchase contracts in hand.

The current status as of June 17th according to Govtrack.us is: Cloture on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment with an amendment (SA 4369) not invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 56 - 40. Record Vote Number: 194. ("Cloture" refers to Senate Rule 22 and is the procedure by which Senate can vote to end a filibuster. In plainspeak Senate voted not to end debate on the bill.



So while the proposed bill is being debated the clock is ticking. This could get mighty interesting depending upon how badly a home buyer was counting on the tax credit for the purchase of their home. Especially for short sales and some new construction it would appear that these deals might not close in time for the current June 30th deadline. So what's a buyer to do? Blow off the deal and forget about home ownership for now or go ahead and hope for the best?



On the one hand, we have to congratulate the architects of the current version over past versions which never considered the idea that it might take some time after a contract was written to actually close (what a novel concept) which caused buyers to quit looking about six to eight week before previous deadlines. On the other hand, it is clear that even the two month post contract deadline is not enough as lenders struggle to deal with the volume of properties and the changing loan underwriting

I'll be watching this one day by day.