UPDATE: $15,000 homebuyer tax credit wiped out?

A new update from the Associated Press suggests that the $15,000 homebuyer tax credit may have been taken out of the economic stimulus package entirely.

The AP story with this update is the same as one I linked to here, but the wording in the story has been changed. The new story states:

"Working to accommodate the new, lower overall limit of the bill, negotiators effectively wiped out a Senate-passed provision for a new $15,000 tax credit to defray the cost of buying a home, these officials said. The agreement would allow taxpayers to deduct the sales tax paid on new car purchases, but not the interest on loans for the same vehicles."

The previous article stated:

"[Max] Baucus had said earlier that $35.5 billion to provide a $15,000 homebuyer tax credit, approved in the Senate last week, would be cut back. There was also pressure to reduce a Senate-passed tax break for new car buyers, according to Democratic officials."

How quickly things can change in Congress.

Without the $15,000 homebuyer tax credit, will the bill revert back to the $7,500 tax credit? The updated verbiage of this story opens a lot of new and discomforting questions. Contact Sean Cutright at scutright@deltagroup.com if you have any.