Calvert spearheads effort to extend home buyer tax credit

October 21st, 2009, 9:23 am · 12 Comments · posted by Dena Bunis, Washington Bureau Chief

Repu calvertkjpg1 blican Rep. Ken Calvert has teamed up with a Connecticut Democrat and got 163 of their colleagues to sign on to a letter urging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and GOP leader John Boehner to bring legislation to the floor to extend the first time home buyer tax credit.

Calvert and Rep. Joe Courtney, D- Conn., held a telephone press conference this morning to explain why Congress should not let the $8,000 credit expire on Nov. 30 as planned.

Click here to read the letter and see who signed it.

“Nothing will work in this economy if housing prices continue to fall,’’ said Calvert, who said home sales have already started to slow in anticipation of the credit ending. “Our perspective is that the housing market is the cornerstone to our economy and until we can stop this destabilization of the market and bring confidence back… we’re going to continue to have a difficult time.’’

The credit is available once new owners have closed on a property. So if someone signed a contract to buy a house today, the lawmakers said, they might even have a tough time making the Nov. 30th closing that would make them eligible for the refundable credit.

Among the Orange County delegation only Calvert and Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar, have signed the letter to the two House leaders. But staffers for Reps. Reps. John Campbell, R-Irvine, Ed Royce, R-Fullerton and Loretta Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, said their bosses support the extension.

The program is not without its detractors.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told a Senate panel this week that while the credit has been beneficial the administration wants to do more research on what it has cost the federal treasury. Congressional analysts have estimated the credit has cost $1 billion a month in lost tax revenue.

In addition, the House Ways and Means Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow on charges of fraud.

Reuters is reporting that the inspector general for the IRS will report at the hearing that 70,000 tax credit claims don’t appear to be legitimate. About 1.4 million returns have been filed by people wanting to take advantage of the credit.

The credit is available to first time home buyers if they meet the income limitations. Single people can earn up to $75,000 to qualify; couples can earn up to $150,000.

Calvert would prefer increasing the credit from $8,000 to $15,000 and eliminating the income screen so the higher end home market can also get a boost. That’s unlikely to get congressional approval.

Two senators – Republican Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Banking Committee Chairman Democrat Chris Dodd of Conn., are fielding a proposal to extend the credit.

They would let all home buyers qualify and would extend the credit only until next June. Their measure would increase the income limits to $300,000 for a couple.

Calvert said California, and the Inland Empire portion of his 44th district has been hard hit from the housing slowdown. Extending the credit, he said, would not only stabilize home values but slow the rate of foreclosure.

In addition, he said, by getting more of the existing housing inventory off the market that would make way for more new construction and that would mean more jobs would be created.

“A credit is money in your pocket and gives a home buyer enough reasons to get off the sidelines and into the market,’’ Calvert said.

Courtney suggested that lawmakers might add a tax credit extension onto the unemployment insurance extension that Congress is also considering.

Share this post:

Posted in: Congress • Economy • meltdown

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Categories

marcus says:

October 21, 2009 at 10:33 am

Let all hope this doen’t get extended. The market will only be accurate once the goverment takes their finger off the hole. Fact is some people who couldn’t afford home were allowed to buy and people who can afford if the market resets are being locked out.

Post Reply

Dina says:

October 21, 2009 at 11:48 am

Exactly

Post Reply

foolishpleasure says:

October 21, 2009 at 10:56 am

this jerk is one of the reasons our country is doing its version of
the roman empire– this is what you get when you put fools in charge

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/americas-soul-is-lost-and-collapse-is-inevitable-2009-10-20

ocobserver says:

October 21, 2009 at 11:22 am

Come on, what a joke!!

The news reports yesterday said that the IRS is investigating 100,000 suspected violators who fraudulently obtained the $8000 housing credit!!! THAT IS ONE OUT OF EVERY THREE APPLICANTS!!
HAH! And Calvert gives his blessing to that program and wants to EXTEND IT??

IS HE NUTS???

JohnB says:

October 21, 2009 at 11:33 am

This republicans are a joke. They block the unemployment extension, now many people cannot even afford to stay in their homes.
VOTE EVERYONE OUT in the next election!!!

gdb says:

October 21, 2009 at 12:09 pm

this is a stupid solution. you’re not going to fix the problems of our political system by having a purge every two years. if the problem is that there are too many corrupt politicians in sacramento and washington, voting them all out is nothing more than a graduation ceremony. just like in a high school, you send the seniors packing and next fall there’s a whole new class to take their place. real change will only occur when you address the financing of candidates, the manner in which districts are drawn and the way elections are conducted. the current laws allow corporations to purchase politicians for servitude just like the slave markets of old. the supreme court actually sides with corporate slaveholders, just as they sided with human slaveholders in the dred scott decision. to get real change will require some radical steps. just blindly voting people out is using a band-aid where a tourniquet is required.

Post Reply
- JohnB says:
  
  October 21, 2009 at 12:16 pm
  
  I agree the gerrymanderng has to stop. They need to draw the lines ONCE and that’s it. If you vote everyone one out (especially the people in there now), you have a better chance of getting a real change. You keep doing this until the mix is better. After awhile you keep the good ones.
  
  Post Reply

gdb says:

October 21, 2009 at 11:35 am

so here comes another giveaway to rich, married whites. the home mortgage interest deduction and capital gains treatment is a taxpayer subsidy that is more likely to benefit you if you are rich, white, married, 28-45, suburban living with a family. i would bet that 95%+ of married, upper income whites ages 28-45 in the suburbs with kids gladly get this government taxpayer money, of which they need not a penny. so there’s been a problem in the re market. turns out, i guess, that the govt isn’t giving enough welfare to rich suburban whites. so now comes this home buyer tax credit. yes there were minorities that took advantage of the tax credit, but i’m sure the numbers will show that the money (aka welfare check) went to rich married suburban whites in a proportion far greater than their numbers among eligible home buyers at large. about the only way that could be wrong is if there is greater minority participation because whites have a greater chance of being ineligible because they already have a recent home purchase and already get their welfare check from the government in the form of a tax deduction for their debt. put and end to these suburban welfare queens! up the benefit for renters along with this tax credit, or end it completely.

marcus says:

October 21, 2009 at 11:50 am

I am 100% against the tax credit but to make this a racial related incentive is ludichrist!
I am sure if they release a cencus the latino community would have the same ratio of qualified recipients as the caucasion families.

Post Reply
Dina says:

October 21, 2009 at 11:51 am

Talk to Obama about it.

Post Reply

Wade says:

October 21, 2009 at 12:23 pm

Obviously this is an attempt to prop up the flagging RE market in the IE. It’s too bad that the IE in general has been so irresponsible in their land use planning. Endless tract housing and no jobs. Maybe Mr. Calvert should focus on that stubborn issue rather than just a symptom of the problem.

steve says:

October 21, 2009 at 10:57 pm

It’s interesting that some people think that only the lower income should get the tax credit. Low income families may not even pay that much tax within a year. Mid income families do. There are all kinds of tax cuts for the lower income families and I think they are of benefit to them.

Is it really better to give the credit to just new home buyers? Aren’t they the higher risk loans? I honestly think the tax credit should be required to be used as a down payment on their home. It should be processed at the time of closing to have proof of the sale. They should only be able to file for one credit. In this way, we know for sure the money got used in the house. Or if the house needs existing repairs (such as a new roof) contracted work would get paid with this credit. A bit more complicated, but we’d have less fraud.

The mid income people who have already purchased their first homes are the ones that are taking it in the shorts right now. They are the ones losing. If they sell their homes or want to refinance, they are having a harder time doing so because the value of their homes are being depreciated due to the short sales/foreclosures. I’m seeing homes in my neighborhood that would have sold for $275k being sold for $219k. Why shouldn’t the second/third time buyer get a credit? They are the ones taking a loss. Not the first time buyers. Sure their credit promotes them going out to buy. But we also need to be able to sell our homes to purchase the newer homes that the first time buyers can’t afford.

First time buyers aren’t getting high enough loans for the new houses.
We need the mid income people to sell their homes to the first time buyers so they are out buying. This is what will improve the economy. So yes, giving a higher incentive or rather credit to those who have already owned a home makes more sense.

The credit should be $8000.00 to first time buyers - $15,000 to second time buyers if it’s their primary home. This will increase the sale of newly built homes. Increase jobs.

Orange County Register