First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Deadline Looming

By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- It's been a big incentive to get people back into a new home during this tough economy. The $8,000 tax credit is set to expire next month, but if you wait any longer it may be too late.

November 30 is the big deadline date, but if you want to take advantage of the tax break you're going to want to close on that dream home a whole lot sooner, that is, unless the government steps in.

For Paige Wright and her husband the $8,000 tax incentive from the government to buy her first home was all the incentive she needed.

"We were planning on buying a home next year, but the $8,000 tax credit made us buy this year," Paige Write said.

In fact Wright is one of 1.4 million people the IRS says have taken advantage of the tax break and some mortgage experts expect that number only to increase as the November 30 deadline grows closer.

"It's been huge, both in Oklahoma and around the country," Mortgage Lender Perry Duncan said.

Duncan with First Commercial Bank has been a mortgage lender going on 30 years and he says the tax incentives for first time home buyers have been nothing but good for the country.

"It's getting those people who have been sitting on the sidelines the additional motivation to buy a home," Duncan said.

Having seen the effect the incentives have had on the housing market has Congress now considering extending the deadline through 2010. Some caution, however, extending the deadline is that it could be too costly. Duncan doesn't see it that way.

"The cost is big, but as it relates to helping move real estate, I think it's significant in helping the economy find some recovery," Duncan said.

The recovery could occur in more than just in housing sales. Those who back extending the deadline say consumers are using the extra money to buy other things.

"We're going to pay off debt and go buy new furniture," Write said.