We may like to refer to them as the "beleaguered big builders," but in fact many of the top names in home building are sitting on piles and piles of cash.
For those of you keeping score on the first time home buyer tax credit extension, here is the latest: The tax credit would be $8,000 for first-time home buyers and $6,500 for move-up buyers....The tax credit would sunset on April 30, 2010.
Sources are telling me that there may be a compromise among Senators Dodd and Lieberman and Senate Finance folks, like Baucus and his staff. Here's how it would work, and again, this is just a source telling me this, not necessarily what will happen:
Call it a sign of the times. It's not exactly a great time to put a large piece of commercial real estate on the market, like a big ol' building in downtown Washington, DC, but apparently the Mortgage Bankers Association didn't have a choice.
More confusion today about what's up with the first time home buyer tax credit extension. Sen. Bill Nelson made a comment as he boarded AF1 today that "We should be able to extend that later this week."
An extension/expansion of the first time home buyer tax credit seems to be all anyone in the housing world is talking about today, and insiders tell me there is much talk about it on Capitol Hill today as well.
The first time home buyer tax credit, which has been credited with adding 355,000 home buyers to the market so far that would not have bought a home without it, and which is under heavy pressure on Capitol Hill to be extended and expanded past its Nov. 30 deadline, has been a haven for criminals.
