Ready to buy a house? You could get money to do so.

The housing market is one of the main drivers of the economic downturn.  Foreclosures and overbuilding took one of the strongest real estate markets in history and flipped it upside down.
    A new tax credit congress recently passed could help.  It offers first-time home buyers a federal tax credit of 10 percent of the purchase price, up to a maximum of $7500 dollars
It’s a simple formula: The more houses on the market, the lower the price. Deals are available if you want to buy.  Sue Trost, a real estate broker with ReMax Southern Shores. She said in her 12 years of real estate, she’s never witnessed such prices.  “The people that have been in the real estate for 30 years haven’t seen these kinds of deals,” said Trost. “There are some excellent prices out there.“
There are approximately 6000 single family homes and 7000 condos on the market in Horry and Georgetown counties. You can also drive nearly anywhere and still see new homes under construction.
Even though the time to buy is now, finding a mortgage is also harder now.  “We’ve got a lot of reluctance with people saying I want to do it, but I want to wait,” said Trost. “On the other hand, we have the problem with the loans. You know people who last year, could have gotten a loan and now they can’t because the lending has tightened up so much.“
For most loans you need a high credit score and at least a 10 percent down payment. Unfortunately, that leaves out a large number of Americans.  There is money available through programs such as the Federal Housing Administration.
FHA offers assistance for middle income applicants, certain professions such as teachers and law enforcement and in some cases, they offer down payment assistance.
    Trost said if you can get the money, now’s the time to buy and that’s just what the housing market needs.   
 
For a complete look at the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit http://www.realtor.org/GAPublic.nsf/files/chart_homebuyer_tax_credit_.pdf/$FILE/chart_homebuyer_tax_credit_.pdf   

In order to claim the credit, you needed to purchase after April 9, 2008 and before July 1 2009. Check with a tax professional or a realtor for more help.

For more economic stories:

http://www.scnow.com/scp/news/on_your_side/ ON YOUR SIDE

http://www.scnow.com/scp/business/money_crunch/  THE MONEY CRUNCH