A total of 149,066 Florida residents claimed first-time homebuyer credits, which were essentially grants, when they purchased their homes through the period January 2009 to July 3 this year, based on Internal Revenue Service records analyzed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. These credits amounted to nearly $1.084 billion, behind only California and Texas which had totals of nearly $1.951 billion and more than $1.386 billion, respectively. California residents had a total of 261,302 claims and Texas posted 190,979 claims.
Florida was also third in the number of claims for the 2008 tax credits that must be repaid, with a total of 64,879 claims filed worth almost $455.6 million
There were three types of first-time homebuyer tax credits that were offered since 2008:
- Credit of up $7,500 that must be repaid over a period of 15 years interest-free
This credit was offered from April 9, 2008 to July 1, 2009 under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. It was equivalent to 10 percent of the home purchase price with a cap of $7,500. Unlike the tax credits offered in 2009 and 2010, this credit must be repaid in 15 equal installments over 15 years starting 2011. Congress later amended this law, requiring only those who availed in the year 2008 to repay the tax credits.
- Credit of up to $8,000 without need of payment if the buyer lives in the house for 3 years
This credit was offered from January 1, 2009 to November 30, 2009 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The deadline was later extended to April 30, 2010.
- Credit of up to $6,500 for long-term homeowners buying new homes
This credit was offered from November 7, 2009 to April 30, 2010, with purchase contracts given time to close up to June 30, 2010, under the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009. The closing deadline was later extended to September 30, 2010. Both these $6,500 and $8,000 tax credits must be repaid if the house is resold within three years. This credit also had a cap on the home purchase price, which was $800,000.
Nationwide, about one million first time homebuyers claimed taxpayer credits in the form of interest-free loans from April 2008 to July 2009. They will start paying these loans, which amounted to $7.3 billion, in January next year.
Under the tax credits offered from January 2009 to April 2010, about 2.3 million homebuyers filed claims totaling $16.2 billion. Of these 2.3 million, about 1.7 million filed claims during the first phase from January to November 2009 and almost 600,000 filed claims totaling about $4.1 billion in the extended phase from November 2009 to April 2010. Of these almost 400,000 claimants, nearly 200,000 first time home buyers filed claims totaling about $2.9 billion and almost 200,000 long-time homeowners filed claims totaling $1.2 billion.