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Senate Approves Extension of Homebuyer Tax Credit Closing Deadline

It looks like some would-be homebuyer tax credit recipients who were unable to secure a closing by the original deadline of June 30 may be in luck.

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Wednesday evening, just hours before the closing deadline for the widely popular tax credit was set to expire, the Senate unanimously approved legislation that pushes the closing date out an extra three months.

The bill, which was approved by the House on Tuesday, extends the closing deadline from the original date of June 30, 2010 to September 30, 2010 for individuals who already qualified for the homebuyer tax credit by signing a contract for a home by April 30, 2010.

All the bill needs now is a signature from the president.

Legislation relating to an extension of the closing deadline arose following concerns that the backlog created by the

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popularity of the program and the time it takes for banks to deal with transactions such as short sales would have left many homeowners unable to claim the credit.

In fact, according to the ""National Association of Realtors"":http://www.realtor.org/ (NAR), some 180,000 buyers were at risk of losing the credit if an extension of the closing deadline was not enacted. According to NAR, distressed short sales make up approximately 75,000 of these at-risk transactions.

It’s been quite a journey to get this legislation approved by both the House and the Senate, though.

""As DSNews.com previously reported"":http://dsnews.comarticles/bill-extending-tax-credit-closing-deadline-falls-through-in-senate-2010-06-25, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) had been pushing for an extension of the tax credit closing deadline and introduced an amendment to a jobs and tax bill in June that would have similarly pushed the cut-off date for the tax credit by three months. However, this larger bill failed to make its way through the Senate.

But the House bill, which was solely geared towards the extension of the closing deadline for the tax credit, was ""overwhelmingly approved by House lawmakers"":http://dsnews.comarticles/house-moves-to-extend-tax-credit-closing-deadline-2010-06-29 on Tuesday in a 409 to 5 vote.

The bill then moved on to the Senate, where it looked like it was going to be tied to unemployment insurance. This effort was unsuccessful, though. Late last night, the Senate unanimously agreed to pass the tax credit extension by itself.

The bill is expected to be signed into law by President Obama as early as today.

About Author: Brittany Dunn

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