The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorizes a tax credit of up to $8,000 for qualified first-time home buyers purchasing a principal residence on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. more…
Here’s another website with good information:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=205416,00.html
Acccording to the Mortgage Bankers Association, refinancing was up 3.7 percent while applications for new purchase rose by 0.1 percent.
This week’s readings show that activity remains strong one week after the MBA reported an increase of more than 32 percent in applications. Still, the MBA now forecasts 2009 mortgage originations to top $2.78 trillion this year. That would make this year the fourth highest for originations, behind only 2002, 2003 and 2005, according to the MBA.
Lenders around the country say a “perfect storm” of record low rates, government incentives and demand for refinancing has sparked a surge in mortgage activity. All lenders say refinances make up the bulk of recent mortgage activity. However, many lenders also report an increase in new purchase applications. The last two years have been pretty quiet, so lenders laid people off and now they have all this new volume and they don’t have the staff to accommodate it.
For these nervous buyers, rock-bottom prices, not low rates or government stimulus, remain the ultimate sales catalyst. Despite the new wave of mortgage interest, lenders generally agree that one government incentive, the new $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit has been a bust thus far mainly because a lot of borrowers don’t seem to know about it. Educating the consumers about the credit will eventually drive home sales higher.