I had a (major) meltdown when my husband and I weren’t approved for a mortgage last fall. I was embarrassed and disappointed and started packing to move into a van down by the river while others were taking advantage of the $8,000 Tax Credit and moving into their new ($800,000 or under) home that President Obama so graciously bestowed upon them.

Rant: If someone can afford an $800,000 home, why do they need an $8,000 tax credit that couples like us could use as a down payment on their first home?

But then something miraculous happened. We decided to move across the country and began to be thankful that we didn’t buy a home.

Now that we’re settled in (to a dinky little one bedroom apartment) the area of town we thought we wanted to buy a home in is one of our least favorite neighborhoods. The jobs we thought we would be working aren’t all they were made out to be. We needed the flexibility of renting in order to find our place in a new city.

Granted, we would have liked the extra $8,000 in our hot little hands (I have my eye on a new DSLR camera – but that’s probably how we got into this mess in the first place) but it wasn’t our time.

If it is your time to buy a home, here are some of the details.

• $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers or those who have not
• Current homeowners are eligible for a $6,500 tax credit if they have lived in their current home consecutively for five of the past eight years.
• Income limits are $125,000 for singles and $225,00 for couples.
• Qualified homeowners need to have a written, binding contract by April 30, 2010 to be eligible.

We’ll be expecting an invitation to dinner soon.

This is a sponsored post. We’ve got a down payment to save for. Please see my site policy if you have any questions.

•