FHFA home price index/tax credit, oh to be 4 yrs old again

By Peter Boockvar - October 22nd, 2009, 10:57AM

The August FHFA home price index fell .3% m/o/m and is down for the first time since April and is down 3.6% y/o/y. From the record highs in April ’07 it’s down 10.7%. Hard to believe, I know. This index only measures those homes that have mortgages backed by FNM and FRE but is geographically diverse. The m/o/m decline was led by the South Atlantic region which includes the DC area, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida and the New England area. The y/o/y drops continue to be mostly in the heavily foreclosed areas of the West and South. With regards to the home buying tax credit which expires next month, the IRS today said tens of thousands of people may have taken advantage of it to defraud the government. 19k people filed ’08 tax returns claiming the credit for houses they haven’t bought yet and 74k had already owned a prior home. Also, 580 taxpayers under 18 yrs old claimed the credit and one was 4 yrs old.

PERMALINK
Category: MacroNotes.

Comments

Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.

One Response to “FHFA home price index/tax credit, oh to be 4 yrs old again”

call me ahab Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
there should be zero tax credits- a gagantic and very expensive giveaway to the NAR, NAHB, and MBA-

people will buy houses without it- and to extend and expand only makes it more difficult down the line for the USG to extricate themsleves from the housing market w/o causing more damage once the artificial props are removed