Housing Recovery Act

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The 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act

What Every New Homebuyer Should Know About the Housing and Economic Recovery Act.

What Is It?

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act is now law. The President approved this legislation on July 30, extending broad authority to the Treasury Department to safeguard the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and creating a tax credit of up to $7,500 for first-time home buyers.

What Will It Do?

This law is intended to steady the residential real estate markets and help assure new home buyers the availability of, and accessibility to, home mortgage financing.

M/I Homes houses

What You Should Know

There are 3 significant parts of the law that you should know about; especially if you were planning to take advantage of a down payment assistance program or some form of buyer's assistance:

  • $7,500 Tax Credit: available to first-time homebuyers; think of it as an interest-free loan
  • Down Payment Assistance programs (DPA) will be eliminated on October 1, 2008
  • Minimum down payment for FHA loans will be increased, from 3% to 3.5%. This is another reason why the elimination of the DPA is important to understand.

What You Should Do?

Contact your local M/I Internet Sales Consultant below to learn about these new provisions, because it could positively affect you or influence when you will buy a new home

Contact your local sales consultant for more details:

The foregoing is for information purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. You are strongly urged to consult with your own tax advisor to determine whether you are eligible for the first-time homebuyer tax credit and/or the additional standard deduction for real property taxes.