$15,000 tax credit won't help low-income home buyers, experts say

[kiva]

As many as 1 million home sales could result from the tax credit, according to Mary Trupo of the National Assn. of Realtors. "By increasing demand and decreasing inventory, it'll help to stabilize home values and result in fewer foreclosures," she said.

But low-income people will not benefit, said Linda Couch, deputy director of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. "The bill is focusing a lot more of its resources on higher-income households and home ownership than it is on the lowest-income people and people really teetering on the edge of homelessness."

Since the money comes as a deductible tax credit spread over two years, home buyers must earn enough to have $7,500 in income taxes -- $81,900 per year for a family of four to get the full benefit, according to the housing coalition.

But if the home costs less than $150,000, the deduction is only worth 10% of the house's value, meaning that those buying the cheapest homes wouldn't receive the full benefit.

Alma Jill Dizon, a Realtor from Riverside, agreed that there wasn't much in the measure for low-income Americans. "From what I can tell, it's really going to benefit people who already have enough salary" to buy a house, said Dizon, who said she sells homes from $150,000 to more than $1 million.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-housing-tax-credit9-2009feb09,0,3820723.story

[grasswire]

1. nor will it help those...

....who already have lost their homes, nor will it help renters who are being evicted because their landlords have failed to pay the mortgage with the rent money they took in. That's a crime in California, and it ought to be a crime nationwide. Rent skimming.

[kiva]

4. Agreed.

I recognize that no single program will help everyone, but I'm not seeing anything that will help those people you have mentioned above.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

2. Nothing Wrong With That Either.

Not every part of the stimulus has to help every part of the population.

[grasswire]

5. but what if NO part of the stimulus...

...is helping the people who need help most?

[liberal N proud]

6. But it does need to stimulate the market

I don't see how a tax credit will stimulate an economy where property values are declining and people are losing what they have.

The housing market is not just sick, it is on it's deathbed

[Goblinmonger]

3. Nor will it help those of us

that actually purchased homes that we could afford and aren't in trouble right now. Can't I get a tax break for not being some opportunistic, asshole, Trump-wanna-be realty developer who gets an ARM because it has smaller payments up front? Certainly THAT has to count for something.

[patriotvoice]

7. Ding Ding Ding!

There is rarely reward for doing what is right.

[kiva]

8. Sorry, living within your means is unpatriotic.

If you're interested, however, in helping to reinflate the housing bubble then do we have a deal for you.

[TahitiNut]

10. "Flip" your home ... with your neighbor.

:evilgrin:

(You don't think that's what the opportunists will do? Just wait.)

[madinmaryland]

12. That's what Paul Krugman refers to it as.

[TahitiNut]

14. That's what it is - a bonus to affluent homeowners who 'flip' their homes.

No question about it. The GOP always feeds the obese elephants.

[Kansas Wyatt]

9. It should be an across the board tax credit for buyers, owners, and renters.

It would also achieve a much broader benefit to the economy, rather than targeting those invested in sub-divisions.

[Tashca]

11. This tax credit has never been about a particular segment.

This bill is about putting a bottom in the housing slide. Individuals looking to buy are sitting on there hands with good reason.....the prices continue down.
Banks are not loaning money......because the prices of homes keeps dropping.

They are trying to stimulate home buying with this bill so that people who are in a position to look will buy....and banks can start dumping their foreclosed assets...

It's more of a banking bill if anything...

edit= spelling

[serrano2008]

13. So every part of the stimulus has to apply to every single person for it to help the economy?

Who cares if this doesn't help everyone, it will help a lot of people.

Giving tons of money and credits to "low income" families won't help stimulate the economy nearly as much as giving money and credits to middle income folks. A. there are way more middle income folks than low income, and 2. the amount stimulating the economy will be higher.

[kiva]

16. But this isn't about the middle class, if you go by average income.

According to the US Census Press:

Real median household income in the United States climbed 1.3 percent between 2006 and 2007, reaching $50,233, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the third annual increase in real median household income.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/012528.html

That's the household income, not that of one wage earner; that means that to take full advantage of this program a family needs an income of more than $30,000 above the average.

[NewEngland4Obama]

15. You are wrong!!!

We are closing on a house that the previous owner paid around 300,000 They bought during 2005 when prices were going through the roof and rented it out. We got the foreclosure for 67,000. we couldn't afford to buy a home with the high prices until now. We will still get 6,700 in tax credits and our payments will be less than the rent we are paying. we are a low income family...