Homebuyer Tax Credit

Published by Jim Winters on February 11th, 2010
2 Comments

(The following article was suggested to me by one of my favorite PHDs.)  

As if tax season weren’t stressful enough, prospective home buyers have two more looming deadlines to contend with.  Both are related to the federal government’s homebuyer tax credit. In a nutshell, the federal government is paying consumers (up to $8000) to purchase a home. You need to get on your horse though. Purchase agreements (i.e. being in contract) need to be signed by April 30, 2010, and you need to purchase your home (i.e. close) by June 30,2010. 

One word of caution. If you intend on taking advantage of the credit, don’t wait until April 1st to start shopping. There is liable to be a feeding frenzy at that time which could artificially push prices higher, and nullify the value of the credit.

 Here are the facts:

What Qualifies?

The Tax Credit applies only to the purchase of a primary residence (i.e. home) where the purchase price is $800,000 or less. The home cannot be purchased from a direct relative (i.e. parents, grandparents, siblings, or children).

 Who Qualifies?

First-time Homebuyers

 First-time homebuyers are defined as people who have not lived in a home they own for the previous three years. For first-time homebuyers, the tax credit applies to 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum amount of $8000. 

Repeat Homebuyers

Repeat homebuyers must have owned their current home for at least five years or have lived in the same home for five consecutive years over the last eight. For repeat homebuyers, the tax credit applies to 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum amount of $6500. Notably, the new law does not require that you sell your current residence.

Income Requirements

Single taxpayers with annual earnings of $125,000 or joint filers with annual incomes of $225,000.  (Single homebuyers with incomes between $125,000 and $145,000 and married homebuyers with incomes between $225,000 and $245,000 will be eligible for a reduced credit).

When?

You must have a signed contract by April 30, 2010 and your transaction must close by June 30, 2010. This deadline is extended to April 30, 2011 for members of the military who have served outside the United States for at least 90 days between Jan 1, 2009 to May 1, 2010. 

How?

Taxpayers can claim the credit on their federal income tax returns. If the credit exceeds the amount of tax owed, the difference is paid in cash – even if the taxpayer owes no tax!

Thanks for reading. 

 
For additional information (of both the detailed and confusing kind) have a look at the IRS websites below:
 

First-Time Homebuyer Credit

Some Current Homeowners Now Also Qualify 

Form 5405

Form 5405 Instructions

…

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The Current Market

Published by Jim Winters on July 23rd, 2009
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I have a question.

If everything I’m reading these days sounds something like housing hasn’t hit bottom.., or something like housing prices are plummeting.., or Deutsche Bank Predicts 40% Drop in New York Home Prices.., or Brooklyn leads the way in unfinished condos.., or the Real Estate crisis is finally catching up to New York..,  then why are so many “experts” out there still referring to this old fairy-tale?

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Homebuyer Tax Credit

Published by Jim Winters on February 11th, 2010
2 Comments

(The following article was suggested to me by one of my favorite PHDs.)  

As if tax season weren’t stressful enough, prospective home buyers have two more looming deadlines to contend with.  Both are related to the federal government’s homebuyer tax credit. In a nutshell, the federal government is paying consumers (up to $8000) to purchase a home. You need to get on your horse though. Purchase agreements (i.e. being in contract) need to be signed by April 30, 2010, and you need to purchase your home (i.e. close) by June 30,2010. 

One word of caution. If you intend on taking advantage of the credit, don’t wait until April 1st to start shopping. There is liable to be a feeding frenzy at that time which could artificially push prices higher, and nullify the value of the credit.

 Here are the facts:

What Qualifies?

The Tax Credit applies only to the purchase of a primary residence (i.e. home) where the purchase price is $800,000 or less. The home cannot be purchased from a direct relative (i.e. parents, grandparents, siblings, or children).

 Who Qualifies?

First-time Homebuyers

 First-time homebuyers are defined as people who have not lived in a home they own for the previous three years. For first-time homebuyers, the tax credit applies to 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum amount of $8000. 

Repeat Homebuyers

Repeat homebuyers must have owned their current home for at least five years or have lived in the same home for five consecutive years over the last eight. For repeat homebuyers, the tax credit applies to 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum amount of $6500. Notably, the new law does not require that you sell your current residence.

Income Requirements

Single taxpayers with annual earnings of $125,000 or joint filers with annual incomes of $225,000.  (Single homebuyers with incomes between $125,000 and $145,000 and married homebuyers with incomes between $225,000 and $245,000 will be eligible for a reduced credit).

When?

You must have a signed contract by April 30, 2010 and your transaction must close by June 30, 2010. This deadline is extended to April 30, 2011 for members of the military who have served outside the United States for at least 90 days between Jan 1, 2009 to May 1, 2010. 

How?

Taxpayers can claim the credit on their federal income tax returns. If the credit exceeds the amount of tax owed, the difference is paid in cash – even if the taxpayer owes no tax!

Thanks for reading. 

 
For additional information (of both the detailed and confusing kind) have a look at the IRS websites below:
 

First-Time Homebuyer Credit

Some Current Homeowners Now Also Qualify 

Form 5405

Form 5405 Instructions

…

2 Comments


Hi, my name is Jim, I Live in Park Slope, and I Own a Car

Published by Jim Winters on August 23rd, 2007
4 Comments

Three years ago, when my wife and I began dating, she would slog her brother’s pickup from Red Hook, where she lived, to Park Slope, where I lived, because her 100 pound Shepherd/Rotti mix was not permitted on the B61. Then, only two months into the relationship, long before I ever said, “I love you,” and while she was still a relatively poor law student, she bought the 1994 Honda Civic that we still have today. The car cost $2500. How she knew that I, at that stage of our relationship, a 43 year old confirmed bachelor, warranted such expenditure, is a testament to just how fantastic she is, how fortunate I am, and a post for another day. For today, the point is I own a car and I live in Park Slope.

(For those who don’t know, let me premise the following by saying that Park Slope and cars — or more specifically Park Slope and parking — go together as well as Rosie and The Donald. The neighborhood is nicknamed No-Park Slope. Google, Parking “Park Slope” and you’ll get no less than 284,000 hits.)

I use the car almost exclusively for work these days. My job entails a lot of driving and a lot of parking: metered parking, alternate side of the street parking, running into the office to get a set of apartment keys double parking, waiting in front of a fire hydrant to pick up the photographer parking, not knowing you left the car in front of a church or private school parking, coming back to your spot, finding your car missing, thinking it was stolen and finding out it was f$%#ing towed parking, amongst other categories of parking. Since the acquisition of the Honda, I have contributed inordinately to the city’s coffers – over $3,000 inordinately that is. And it is this fact that uniquely qualifies me to present you with the following revelations:

(Sadly, as I scribe this using Cafe Sutra’s free WiFi, I have to run out to feed the meter…I’m back)

Parking Mantra: Be pessimistic.

Stop believing that life is fair, stop wishing things will work out, and stop hoping that maybe this time you won’t get a parking ticket. Face it – the city is on their game (I’m not happy about it, just stating the facts). Park illegally, give them the opportunity, and they will write you a ticket. My advice: prepare for the worst and have a plan. Read on.

The Tao of Parking: Take your time.

Relax, slow down and park the way God intended us to … legally. Give yourself a little extra time and you’ll be able to avoid parking where the city says you can’t. To demonstrate my point, the statisticians at From The Stoop, have carefully recorded empirical data over the last three years and have calculated the following:

  • You have a 31% chance of getting a ticket within 10 minutes of an expired meter.
  • The odds go up significantly after the 10 minute mark.
  • You will receive a ticket more often for not moving your car during alternate side of the street parking then any other violation. (Think of it this way, if the DOT hired you to catch fish (i.e. parking violators), and you knew that in a specific cove (i.e. block), of a specific lake (i.e. neighborhood), at 11:01 AM every Tuesday, you could catch no less than 11 lunkers, wouldn’t you fish there every Tuesday at 11:01 AM and take the rest of the day off?)
  • 23% of people will actually claim to observe the ticket being written and placed on their windshield.
  • 43% of the 23% mentioned above will claim to have told off the ticket writer.

Point is, relax, drive safely, drive slowly, and park legally.

Parking tip #1: Save your quarters.

‘Nough said.

Parking tip #2: Employ the Double Time rule.

Sub-tip 1: Fill the meter for twice the amount of time you expect to be there. It’s a lot cheaper then the ticket. (25 cents per one-half hour as of this writing.)

Sub-tip 2: Always double the estimated time it takes to get to your car. Car parked 5 minutes away? Give yourself 10.

Parking Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Forget…

Again, from empirically gathered data, I know that the number one cause of expired meter and alternate side of the street parking tickets is a lost track of time. Solution: set an alarm. If you’re high-tech, set a reminder in your Palm or Blackberry. Want to go low-tech,? Get an egg timer. And, just as importantly, don’t wait to set it or put it off because…you’ll forget! Don’t make, or return, or answer a phone call. Don’t run into the office to get out of the rain. Don’t reach into your ashtray for a quarter. Don’t do any of these things before you set the alarm – because if you do, (remember empirical data) you won’t set it. Always set the alarm first and then do the other things.

There’s more I could write (including how to fight your tickets online), but this is already a long post. Please forward your own parking tips my way. I still need all the help I can get. Thanks for reading, Jim.

4 Comments


Take Five

Published by Jim Winters on April 6th, 2008
1 Comment

Thinking about real estate in Park Slope Brooklyn

The author demonstrates the Take Five method

People often solicit my opinion about a given neighborhood. “Is it safe?”,they ask. “How is the area? What are the locals like?”, etcetera, etcetera,… I flat out try to evade these questions and I have my reasons. For one, I’m very fond of the neighborhoods I work in and don’t feel capable of answering objectively (It would be like bad-mouthing a family member to an outsider). For two, other than the number of times I’ve been fleeced by the Department of Finance (see How to Park It), I don’t worry all that much about crime in my neck of the woods. And three, the locals question? I don’t even want to know what people are getting at there. So I don’t answer any of these questions. But this is what I do say. I say, “because everyone has a different comfort level when it comes to these things, you need to explore the neighborhood yourself. That means more than just a cursory look. You need to take five extra minutes with some of the residents and get to know them. Doesn’t matter how you do it, but you need to engage a few locals. Ask for directions or the best place to get coffee. Say good morning or good afternoon. Whatever it is, just talk to people. If you do this, I guarantee, that if you really do this, you will see the neighborhood and you will see the entire city of NY in a very different light.”

I can hear the collective moan coming over the big T1 line in the blogosphere. You are out of your mind Jim. This is New York City! You can’t just talk to people on the street. You’ll scare them, or they’ll be suspicious, or they’ll get mad. My experience has taught me otherwise. When I first started exploring Crown Heights, I would stop random people on the street and ask them what they were paying for rent. If anyone asked why, I would simply say that I was thinking of buying a three family building in the neighborhood and wanted to know what I could lease the apartments for. And you know what? People talked to me. They were friendly. They were nice. They were very helpful. I even got invited into someone’s apartment to have a look. I couldn’t believe it either, but I learned a valuable lesson about my city. Nowadays, I almost always say hello, good morning, and good afternoon and my neighbors usually say it back.

So you want to know about a neighborhood? Take five extra minutes and get to know its residents. Thanks for reading, Jim.

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“what a pushy, asshole, passive agressive [sic] broker”

Published by Jim Winters on January 11th, 2010
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Overall the response has been great to my very first video appearence as a real estate professional. However, there was that one comment on 12/4…

Walk-through: David Gahr House
Posted to New York Magazine by jgreen on December 01, 2009

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