Senate OKs New Tax Credit Closing Deadline

Backers of Amendment Cite Backlog of 180K Homebuyers

The Senate has amended a bill to give homebuyers who were under contract on a home purchase by April 30 an additional three months to close the deal and claim the federal homebuyer tax credit.

Extending the deadline for closing from June 30, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2010 would allow lenders more time to clear a backlog of 180,000 homebuyers nationwide, said amendment sponsor Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The amendment to HR 4213, the "American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010" -- which primarily extends unemployment insurance benefits -- was approved in a 60-37 vote Wednesday.

The House passed an earlier version of the bill in December, and the Senate approved its own version in March. The Senate is currently working on resolving differences between the two bills.

The National Association of Realtors supports the amendment, saying Realtors have reported that as many as one-third of qualified applicants have been told by lenders that their loans will not close before June 30 because of the sheer volume of loan applications in the pipeline.
The amendment does not extend the deadline for homebuyers to qualify for the tax credit, NAR said in urging lawmakers to approve it, but simply extends the deadline for closing transactions already in contract.

"Since these applications were already in the pipeline and figured into the program's cost, the extension of the closing deadline should not incur any further government costs," NAR President Vicki Cox Golder said in a statement.

By Inman News, Wednesday, June 16, 2010. Inman News