President Obama Approves Extension of Tax Credit Closing Deadline

It's official--on Friday morning, President Obama signed legislation to extend the closing deadline for homebuyer tax credit recipients.

[IMAGE]

Originally, qualifying buyers who were under contract by April 30, 2010 had until June 30, 2010 to close. But as this deadline approached, concerns arose that the backlog of loan applications created by the popularity of the program would leave many buyers unable to claim the credit.

In fact, an estimated 180,000 buyers were at risk of missing the closing deadline, according to the ""National Association of Realtors"":http://www.realtor.org/ (NAR).

These at-risk buyers can now breathe a sigh of relief. President Obama's approval of the Homebuyers Assistance and Improvement Act of 2010 extends the closing date from June 30, 2010 to September 30, 2010, giving qualified buyers who signed a contract by April 30, 2010 an extra three months to complete their closing.

""As DSNews.com previously reported"":http://dsnews.comarticles/senate-approves-extension-of-homebuyer-tax-credit-closing-deadline-2010-07-01, the road to approval of this legislation was a bumpy one.

[COLUMN_BREAK]

Senate Majority Leander Harry Reid (D-Nevada) 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 toward the extension of the closing deadline for the tax credit, was overwhelmingly approved by House lawmakers 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 Wednesday night, just hours before the original closing deadline was set to expire, the Senate unanimously agreed to pass the tax credit extension by itself.

With approval from both the House and the Senate and a signature from President Obama, the closing deadline is officially extended.

""What a great way to begin celebrating our nation's most patriotic holiday by opening the door to the American dream of homeownership to thousands of home buyers who would have been shut out of the homes of their dreams through no fault of their own,"" said Vicki Cox Golder, president of NAR.

In addition to approving the extension of the tax credit closing deadline, President Obama signed the National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act of 2010 on Friday morning. This retroactively reauthorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to enter into new contracts for flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program through September 30, 2010. The extension of this program is expected to help provide further stability to real estate markets across the nation.