THE SCRATCHBOARD

Hello Everyone,
We thought you may be interested in the new Stimulas Plan and what specifically applies to
Real Estate, more specifially Buyers. *Note this information has been provided by University of Southern Alabama Economics Department, and we have been given permission to post . Also note this is just an excerpt from the entire article.

On Tuesday, February 17, 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R.1) was signed into law by President Obama. The $787 billion economic stimulus package will impact a vast number of areas in the U.S. economy and the President is hopeful that the broad spectrum spending injection will initiate upward movement in all economic and geographic areas of the United States.
The real estate market benefited from a number of the Act's provisions.
Homebuyer Tax Credit – "The bill provides for a $8,000 tax credit that would be available to first-time home buyers for the purchase of a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. The credit does not require repayment. Most of the mechanics of the credit will be the same as under the 2008 rules: the credit will be claimed on a tax return to reduce the purchaser's income tax liability. If any credit amount remains unused, then the unused amount will be refunded as a check to the purchaser."

Rural Housing Service - "The bill provides an additional $500 million to existing USDA Rural Housing programs. The RHS provides both a guaranteed loan program and a direct housing loan program for those meeting the program’s eligibility criteria. The direct loan program will receive $270 million while $230 million will be allocated for unsubsidized guaranteed loans. It has been reported that this level of funding would provide for an additional 192,000 homeowners."
The Final Text of Conference Reports on H.R.1-The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 can be found at the following location: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/arra_public_review/

*Important Note: This information presented does not purport to contain all of the specifics of each category and should not be counted on to give all of the requirements for each item. Also note the information obtained, has been given permission to foward to interested parties. They are high level overviews only and cannot be guaranteed to be free from error or to contain all of the specific requirements. Please review all programs that you are considering at length with a qualified professional, lawyer or with the specific government agencies for full and complete details to participate in the programs.