American Land Title Association Asks Congress to Extend Closing Deadline for Homebuyer Tax Credit

The American Land Title Association (ALTA) said it sent a letter on June 16 urging legislators to support an extension of the present homebuyer tax credit closing deadline to Sept. 30.

In a release, ALTA said that in order to qualify for the homebuyer tax credit, a buyer must have entered into a binding sales contract on or before April 30, and the transaction must close no later than June 30.

“Despite the real estate settlement industry’s best efforts, it appears that many consumers are at risk of having their transactions not close by June 30,” said Mark Winter, president of ALTA.

Because of the amount of time to process short sales and foreclosures, many consumers may be unable to meet this deadline. This could impact as many as 75,000 prospective, according to the National Association of Realtors. The Senate passed an amendment on June 16, which was introduced by Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), that extends the present homebuyer tax credit closing deadline by three months.

“ALTA encourages other legislators to follow the senators lead and support this measure,” Winter said. “It would be unfair to consumers who have met the eligibility requirements for the credit and done all within their power to satisfy the timing requirements, only to forfeit the credit because of administrative challenges related to the transaction.”

The American Land Title Association is a national trade association representing more than 3,000 title insurance companies, title agents, independent abstracters, title searchers, and attorneys. ALTA members conduct title searches, examinations, closings, and issue title insurance that protects real property owners and mortgage lenders against losses from defects in titles.