Things are moving fast in Washington so I thought I would update my blog from yesterday. The legislation that Senator Isakson proposed for a housing market stimulus has been included in the Senate stimulus (spending) bill as of last night. See article from the AJC

Before I go off on another rant I just wanted to say thank you to Senator Isakson’s staff for being so helpful. I called his Washington D.C. office to get some information straight from the source. I spoke to James Bostic (one of his aides) in Washington and Andrew from his GA office. They were both very polite and responsive.

They both informed me that Senator Isakson has not decided at this point if he will be supporting the stimulus bill that now includes his housing proposal. Frankly I am doubtful that he will oppose the bill now that it includes his baby but one can always hope.

There were numerous errors from yesterday’s article or changes were made to the proposal.  The following information is correct to the best of my knowledge at this point.  Keep in mind that this is not law and is subject to change.

The basics are as follows:

• amount of the tax credit would be $15,000 or 10 percent of the purchase price, whichever is less
• the tax credit will not have to be repaid if the home is owned for at least two years
• the home purchase must take place within one year from the date of the bills enactment
• this applies only to the purchase of a principle residence

I will be sure to keep you up to date on this legislation because if it does pass it will definitely impact the housing market.  We know for sure closing attorneys will be extremely busy on the day right before the one year expiration of this offer and it will be a eerily quiet the day after it expires.  Who wants to be the guy that missed out on a $15,000 payoff by one day?

Even though I would personally benefit from this bill passing I am steadfastly against it.  The short term gains are not worth the long term consequences.

Consider this, how long will it be before the brain trust in Washington proposes the same thing for the auto industry? At what cost? And gee, sales at retailers are way off too.

I’ll tie all of this together for you in an upcoming blog about what is about to happen to our interest rates.

All the best,  Jeff