Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season. We have family visiting in town, and while we have no big plans, it’s still nice to have an extra pair of hands just to watch our 17-month-old. (Really, what is it that happens to us over time that our toddler has more energy in his little toe than two adults combined?!)

Anyway, next year I will officially be 100% in my new role, so I expect plenty of new fodder for this site!

Seems the ever popular first-time home buyers’ program that offers qualified first-time home buyer an $8K tax credit was expanded and extended earlier in November.

Now, rather than expiring at the end of December 2009, it’s been extended into the first half of 2010 (purchase agreements have to be signed by April 30th and closings final by June 30, 2010), offers up to $6.5K to qualified repeat home buyers, and increases the income cap limit to receive the full amount of the tax credit to $125K for single filers and $225K for joint filers. You can also receive partial credit for up to $145K and $245K, respectively.

While this is good news for us (something is better than nothing), it unfortunately isn’t a significant enough event for us to find a place any faster. Even with the full $8K credit, that’s < 1% of the house prices we've been seeing listed in the area, and it might just cover what I estimate will be our closing costs. Wow, that's sobering. We're continuing our house hunt but simply finding much less inventory now that it's December (read: winter, or maybe "not summer"). Our current lease is up in March, so we'll have to see whether we find something by then, choose to renew the rental on our tiny house for another year (our landlord is not open to month-to-month leases), or opt for renting some other place. The good thing is that after seeing so many houses, I've got a much better sense of the housing market on the Peninsula, so hopefully the next time we find a place we like, we'll be ready and won't get cold feet again!