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Tax Credit Extension Good News for Austin Home Buyers

AUSTIN, TX – November 6, 2009 – The extension of the first-time home buyer tax credit will allow more Austin residents to purchase homes and help keep Austin’s real estate market strong, says Greg Cooper, Chief Executive Officer of Austin-based Goldwasser Real Estate.

“A lot of first-time home buyers are interested in buying, but haven’t been able to clean up their credit yet,” Cooper says. “We have at least 30 to 40 buyers in the midst of credit repair who would have missed out on the tax credit, but are now going to be able to take advantage of it.”

On Thursday, Congress passed legislation to extend the current $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit, which was set to expire on December 1, until April 30, 2010. The law also provides for a tax credit of up to $6,500 for current homeowners looking to purchase a different home worth up to $800,000, as long as they have lived in their current residence for five of the past eight years.

The existing $8,000 tax credit, enacted earlier this year, has positively affected the Austin housing market, experts say. “It has definitely helped stimulate the Austin market and kept the lower price points strong,” Cooper said, noting that Austin’s relatively young population means the city has an unusually high percentage of first-time home buyers.

“We’ve definitely seen a big increase in first time home buyers,” Cooper said of his company’s sales. “Our average sale price has dropped about $7,000 from 2008 to 2009.”

The expansion of the tax credit to include a provision for current homeowners to move up will likely generate some activity in the local market as well. “For many people, $6,500 is a lot of money,” Cooper said.

Cooper predicts that home sellers in the under $200,000 price range will continue to see a relatively strong market in Austin, as first-time buyers use the credit to purchase those homes. Strong sales will likely extend into higher price ranges as well, thanks to the extension of the credit to existing homeowners, plus the fact that interest rates again fell below five percent on Thursday.

“I think we’ll see some pent-up demand released in the middle price ranges,” Cooper said.

As homeowners utilize the $6,500 credit to purchase more expensive homes, many will be able to sell to first-time homebuyers, resulting in a win-win situation.

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About Goldwasser Real Estate

Goldwasser Real Estate, LLC is a full-service, residential real estate company providing world-class experience and quality service to clients, agents and associates. The company’s mission is to be the world leader in providing revolutionary value and innovation to the buyers and sellers of residential real estate. Founder Chad Goldwasser has been in the real estate business since 1998 and grew his company into the number one residential real estate team in Austin for 2006, 2007, and 2008 (as ranked by the Austin Business Journal), as well as the number one sales team in the Keller Williams Realty International system for units sold in 2007. The company formed its own independent brokerage, Goldwasser Real Estate, in November 2008. For more information, please visit www.goldwasserrealestate.com.