Tax incentive for home buyers changed to $8,000

The new stimulus package seemed to defy Washington’s peculiar laws of physics, where numbers that go up don’t often come back down.

But by producing a compromise with a sticker price of about $789 billion — less than the amount approved in either the House or the Senate — Congress appears to have ensured quick passage. Indeed, the Senate may begin debate on the package Thursday and may even pass it before the House, which would endorse it by the end of the week.

The stimulus bill initially passed by the House had a projected cost of $820 billion, on the high end of the White House’s recommended range. The Senate then went even higher, to $838 billion. And yet Congressional leaders and the Obama administration have settled on a final deal that lopped nearly 4 percent off the House bill and nearly 6 percent from the Senate version.

The Senate had proposed a $15,000 tax incentive for all home buyers, a generous morsel that had real estate brokers smiling. But the final deal falls back to a House proposal that would provide much less money and would limit the provision to first-time home buyers within certain income limits.

Although details were still being worked out, officials said that eligible first-time homebuyers would be able to claim a credit of $8,000.

Click here to read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/politics/13stimulus-web.html?hp

Senate OKs $15,000 tax break for homebuyers

The Senate voted Wednesday night to give a tax break of up to $15,000 to homebuyers in hopes of revitalizing the housing industry. Click here to read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090204/ap_on_go_co/congress_stimulus