MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – July 8, 2010 –- A recent three-month extension of a homebuyer tax-credit deadline will help seal some delayed deals but otherwise will have little impact on the local housing market, area real estate agents say.
Homebuyers hoping to qualify for the federal tax credits now have until Sept. 30 to complete their purchases, thanks to a measure that Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed last week. The measure extended the closing deadline from its original June 30 date.
The emergency measure benefits an estimated 230,000 potential homebuyers nationwide who would have missed the original deadline, the National Association of Realtors said.
Among them are three clients of Tony Barrett, broker-owner of Benoit Barrett Realty in Myakka City.
“They were pretty relieved” by the extension, Barrett said Wednesday.
All had feared they would lose the tax credit -- up to $8,000 for first-time buyers and $6,500 for current homeowners purchasing their next home -- because they would not make the closing deadline, he said. All are waiting on the seller to get bank approval to sell the property for less than what’s owed on it in order to avoid foreclosure.
Such “short sales” typically take four to six months to close, or at least twice as long as a non-short sale, said Cindy Greco, president of the Manatee Association of Realtors.
“For the government to give just 60 days to close was not realistic,” she said. “I’m really glad they extended it.”
But the extension won’t spur new sales, as buyers had to have signed purchase agreements in place on or before April 30.
“It’s not creating any more buyers,” Debbie Roth of Rosebay Real Estate said of the extension. “The buyers had to have been there in April.”
Despite the success of the tax credits -- “It definitely did what it was designed to do. It really blew some wind in our sails,” Greco said. Agents said they haven’t heard anything about any possible follow-up government incentives.
Don’t expect any, a real estate analyst said, noting the Senate narrowly approved the three-month extension just hours before the original deadline was to expire.
“In my opinion it would be very difficult to get any new incentives or tax credits through the Senate,” said Jack McCabe of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach. “I think we’re going to start seeing more restraints on spending. I think the Senate feels like it’s shot a lot of bullets at housing and they’re now out of ammunition.”
But Realtors aren’t waiting on Congress for their next effort to promote homeownership. The Florida Realtors trade group plans to air radio ads next week highlighting the need for affordable and workforce housing, especially for firefighters, police officers and others public-service workers.
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