The surveyed senior mortgage executives said increasing the housing stock and offering consumer subsidies, such as a
first-time homebuyer tax credit, could improve affordability for low- and moderate-income homebuyers.
A handful of states have signed
first-time homebuyer savings programs into law, including Iowa, Mississippi, Virginia, Montana and Colorado, according to NAR.
For over 25 years, HCIDLA has operated
first-time homebuyer assistance programs, providing eligible
first-time homebuyers with purchase assistance in the form of a deferred-payment soft second loan to be used toward down payment, acquisition and closing costs.
Others raised questions on how to verify whether someone actually is a
first-time homebuyer or if the break should be granted to a newly married couple when only one of them has never owned a home.
"The surge in
first-time homebuyer demand, and the decline in overall purchases, was driven by supply-demand imbalances in today's housing market," Liu said in a statement.
Together, these developments hold the potential to unleash
first-time homebuyer demand."
9 CU Times article ("3
First-Time Homebuyer Roadblocks") should give credit unions that want to increase their purchase mortgages some food for thought.
Carrington has made a public commitment to provide a more transparent, affordable and simplified home loan process to help boost the
first-time homebuyer market for borrowers with modest means and less-than-perfect credit.
The Tax Court held that a home inherited by a taxpayer disqualified him from a
first-time homebuyer credit for a new residence.
Runyan indicates that the IRS has recognized that using an irrevocable trust may have provided a way around the rule against related party transactions when claiming the
first-time homebuyer credit, and makes clear that the practice also constitutes a related party transaction.
Russell George, an inspector general with the Treasury Department, found that the IRS paid out about $460 million in credits to at least 67,100 Americans who were clearly not eligible for the
first-time homebuyer program.
