Home Resales on The Rise
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The light at the end of the tunnel?
Denver-area home resales up in December | Denver Business Journal http://t.co/k3wiXL0
Homeowner preserves right to demolish Denver home
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One of Denver’s most posh neighborhoods has been split by plans to demolish a home and an effort to save it — using a landmark preservation ordinance — that City Councilman Charlie Brown describes as “real estate terrorism.”
The conflict began this summer when Gary Yourtz paid $1.1 million for a house in the Belcaro neighborhood and pulled a demolition permit, planning to build his dream house at 825 S. Adams St.
His plans were stalled when a preservationist and a neighbor used a provision of a city law enacted four years ago to file an eleventh-hour landmark designation application for the home.
The house is scheduled to be razed Jan. 15, but Yourtz says it cost him $18,000 to preserve that right —
Owner Gary Yourtz spent $18,000 in the legal fight.
Homebuyer Tax Credit Nuances
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The homebuyer tax credit is not as simple or straightforward as you might think. Here are some nuances that will affect homebuyers who plan to use it.
- To qualify for the move-up tax credit, a home owner must have occupied the same principal residence for five of the last eight years consecutively.
- Buyers can elect to claim the credit on either their 2009 or their 2010 tax return, whichever is best for them.
- Buyers who claim the credit in 2009 can’t file electronically because the Internal Revenue Service hasn’t put the required forms on line.
- The wait for a refund is three or four months.
- The home can’t be purchased from a close relative, including a parent, spouse, child, grandparent or grandchild.
- A buyer who earns no taxable income or doesn’t owe any federal income tax can qualify for the tax credit and file a tax return just to claim it.
