Roundup: Don't Expect Another Extension to the Homebuyer Tax Credit

• April 22nd 2010

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Here are some stories we came across this week that we think will be of interest:

• The photo above is of the drool-worthy condo used as the protagonist’s home in the upcoming sequel to Oliver Stone’s 1987 classic Wall Street. The New York Times profiles the unit, as well as the lengths to which the financier owner went to hide his identity. Apparently being an ostentatious Wall Street high-flyer isn’t politically correct these days.

And now back to real estate topics affecting mere mortals.

• While most people have assumed that the homebuyer tax credit will finally expire at the end of this month, there may be a few hopeful folks still gunning for another extension. Sorry to disappoint, but that’s just not likely to happen, says MarketWatch. The two big lobbies that pushed for the first extension at the end of last year — the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders — have not made the same push this time around.

• The H Street Corridor may be getting a Giant supermarket at Third and H streets NE, which will certainly make new homebuyers there happy. Trader Joe’s, Yes! Organic and Harris Teeter were also in contention.

• In streetcar news, The Washington Business Journal reports that DC has applied for a $25 million grant from the Feds to help fund extension of the line east down Benning Road, across the Anacostia River, and on to the Benning Road Metro. (Currently, the eastern terminus will be at Benning and Oklahoma Avenue at the edge of Rosedale.) The city should find out in June whether its application was accepted. Separately, Greater Greater Washington has posted a great explanation of exactly how both ends of the streetcar will be laid out.

• As the economy tentatively recovers, all eyes are on the nation’s housing market. Will it continue to improve even as the tax credit ends and mortgage rates move higher, or will it falter? The experts disagree. Robert Shiller, housing guru and father of the widely-cited Case-Shiller index, told The Motley Fool that housing is on shaky ground: “I don’t trust the [upward] trend that we have. I’m worried that it might get reversed.” On the other side, investor John Paulson, who made a fortune betting on the implosion of the mortgage market, is bullish. He thinks that home values have overcorrected and could climb back another 8 to 10 percent next year. What do you think?

Finally, here are UrbanTurf’s three most popular posts of the last week in case you missed them:

1. Antawn Jamison’s Palatial Bethesda Mansion Hits the Market
2. The Must Use Tool for DC Home Buyers
3. DC’s Top 50 Properties (and What They Say About the City’s Buyers)

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/roundup_dont_expect_another_extension_to_the_homebuyer_tax_credit/2001.