$7,500 for First-Time Home Buyers

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Story Published: Aug 1, 2008 at 5:21 PM MST

Story Updated: Nov 21, 2008 at 12:04 AM MST

By Danielle Leigh

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IDAHO FALLS - The federal government is giving 75-hundred dollar tax credits to first-time home buyers. The incentive is part of the 2008 American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Act the President signed this week.

Brokers are calling it the biggest tax credit since WWII and the GI Bill.

Here's the problem. There are just too many houses like this one on the market. The government hopes this tax credit will get first-time home buyers off the fence and houses like this one sold.

So, if you've been eying a house, now may be the time to buy. It will mean up to 75 hundred dollars from the government in your pocket.

"What it's going to do it literally put billions of dollars into peoples pockets," says Century 21 Broker Steve Taggart.

"This is a stimulus package that says to first-time home buyers, go, let's get this done, it's a great time to buy," says Century 21 Realtor Jeff Metcalf.

The credit is for any first-time home buyer who seals the deal between April 9, of this year and June 30, 2009.

"First-time home buyers is kind of an interesting term here. What it means is somebody who hasn't had a home in the last three years. What will happen is when they file their tax return they'll actually get that cash back from the government. Now it is an interest free loan but they do have to repay it over a 15-year-period," says Taggart.

Taggart says whether or not the incentive pushes buyers off the fence depends on the individual.

Now realtors are calling clients who bought a house before the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Act went into affect but still qualify.

For clients with the Century 21 in Idaho Falls, the news is unbelievable..

Metcalf says he's definitely seen a positive response from people who otherwise may not have made a purchase.

This tax credit doesn't apply to everyone. It starts to phase out for couples who make more than an adjusted income of 150 thousand dollars a year and for singles who make more than 75 thousand.

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