WPIX NEWSROOM

6:07 p.m. EST, January 19, 2010
NEW YORK (WPIX)—
The home buyer tax credit provides a tax credit of 10% of the price of your home up to $8,000 for first-time home buyers or $6,500 for long-time homeowners.

Although the home buyer tax credit has a lot of requirements, most people are disqualified on one of these three:

First: Ownership History

To qualify, you have to either be a first-time home buyer or a long-time homeowner. To be a first-time home buyer, you cannot have owned a home you lived in at any time in the past three years. To be a long-time homeowner, you must have owned a home you lived in for five consecutive years out of the last eight.

Second: Income

The income limits have been raised, but they still exclude some people, particularly in high income area's like the NYC metro area. The limits are $125,000 for single taxpayers, $225,000 for joint couples, although you can get a partial tax credit if your income is within $20,000 of those limits.

Third: Deadlines

You have to be in contract by April 30th, and you have to close by June 30th. Not easy for some people, particularly with the financing issues going on.

If you have questions about the Home Buyer Tax Credit, ask Joseph Rand, Founder of HomebuyerTaxCredit.com

Joseph Rand is a Managing Partner of Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty, the largest real estate company in New York's Hudson Valley. He is also one of the founders of HomebuyerTaxCredit.com, a comprehensive consumer resource site on the 2009-10 Home Buyer Tax Credit, and a leading real estate educator and speaker. This is his professional home page, where you will find his business links, writings, videos, and media information.