Isakson Pushes for Expanded Tax Credit to Stimulate Housing Market

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator and Senate candidate Johnny Isakson continued his commitment to help stimulate what he believes is the root of our financial crisis – the housing market – today with an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill that would expand the current $8,000 homebuyer tax credit to include all individuals who purchase a home in the next year.

May 20, 2009

Currently, the $8,000 tax credit is limited to first-time homebuyers and is capped at income levels of $75,000 for an individual and $150,000 for a couple. Isakson’s amendment would include all homebuyers and eliminate the income caps in order to make faster strides to fix the current market. In addition, the amendment would extend the tax credit to June 10, 2010, and would still allow homebuyers to claim the credit on their 2008 tax return.

“By removing these impediments, I am confident that many more buyers will take advantage of this tax credit and we will have a significant improvement in the housing market and in our economy,” said Isakson. “As has happened in 1968, 1974 and 1990-1991, housing took America into a recession and it was only when the housing market recovered that the America economy improved.”

Isakson has pushed hard for a non-repayable tax credit for homebuyers because he knows that it will work. In 1975, Congress passed a $2,000 homebuyer tax credit in 1975 when America faced a similarly bad housing market. The tax credit spurred home sales dramatically and turned the housing market around. Isakson believes a homebuyer tax credit would have the same positive impact this year.

Isakson has introduced similar legislation in the U.S. Senate where it has been unanimously approved, only to be stripped out of final legislation during conference negotiations with the U.S. House of Representatives. He remains committed to ‘Fix Housing First’ as the first step to getting the economy back on track.

Isakson has over 30 years of experience in the real estate business and served as president of Northside Realty in Atlanta for 20 years as it grew into the largest independent residential real estate brokerage company in the Southeast and one of the largest in the nation.