Thanks to a large marketing effort by the National Association of Realtors, most everyone is aware that if you are a first time home buyer (or have not owned in the last three years), there is an $8000 pay day waiting for you in the form of a tax credit if you buy a house this year. This is a complete gift from the federal government… it does not need to be paid back. The government giving you back some of the money you’ve paid in taxes?? How often does this happen?? Not often.

In fact, this might be the only time we see this type of credit. With the national deficit rapidly expanding and with the out of control spending that we are witnessing, the US will have plenty of obligations to meet (namely repaying China), and those obligations won’t go away anytime soon (our kids and grand kids will not be thanking us). We have gone from the world’s biggest lender to the world’s biggest borrower and we (as a nation) do not have enough money coming in to repay our debts. One way you can personally hedge yourself against rampant inflation (a likely outcome given our current policies) is to buy and hold real estate. Real estate is a hard asset that has real, intrinsic value. This means that as the value of the dollar declines, assets that are measured in dollars like gold, oil, and real estate tend to appreciate. If you hold real estate over the long term, you will be better off than keeping your money in a bank or CD (or worse, paying someone else’s mortgage in the form of rent!)… Savings accounts will likely fall short of inflation which means that the more you put in the bank, the more your buying power will deteriorate over time.

I could continue talking about my opinion on government spending, but I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for a later post… the point I want to make is that this $8000 tax credit may not be extended and this could be the only time that you will be able to take advantage of it. The credit runs out on 12/1/09 (unless legislation passes to extend it). This means that if you are thinking of taking advantage of this credit, you have less than three months to find a home, get it under contract and close. Here in the Raleigh real estate market, you will need to write a contract on a home by mid October if you would like to close by the end of November. Please take advantage of this credit! If you have any questions on the Raleigh real estate market, or Raleigh real estate investing, please feel free to contact me.

John Huber works in the Raleigh real estate market, and he specializes in downtown Raleigh real estate, North Raleigh real estate, and Raleigh Investment Property.