jolenta's Blog: Money Matters

The new tax credit for first-time homebuyers that's included in the economic stimulus package was slashed from the previously proposed $15K to just $8K and a far cry from the $20K the homebuilding industry wanted. Analysts expect the credit consisting of 10% of the value of any home up to $8K to have a smaller impact on the U.S. housing market than previously hoped. Last year, Congress enacted a $7,500 tax credit for first-time buyers (which had to be paid back over 15 years) and the impact on home sales was negligible.This time the tax credit is limited to first-time buyers who act between the start of 2009 and the end of November 2009. First-time buyers are defined as those who haven't owned a house for at least three years.

The credit of 10…

That old joke about how your tax assessor views your property may be more true than you realize...

To better understand all things property tax related, I recently added a page to my Madison WI real estate site about Madison property assessments and mill rates based on information from the City Assessor's Office. In my research putting together this page I had a conversation recently with City of Madison Assessor's Office and was struck by two things: One, the fact that the office of the City Assessor of Madison does not have unfettered access to the South Central Wisconsin MLS (apparently they they have access to Sold listings but do not have access to Active, Pending and Expired listings). And two (and perhaps more surprising), that in valuing…