Yes. There is a new home buyer credit that applies to building a home as well as buying one. If you are a first time homeowner and meet certain other criteria, the tax credit is $8000. If you are building a new home but previously owned a home and lived in it at 5 consecutive years out of the last eight (and meet certain other criteria), the credit is $6500.

You can get more info at www.irs.gov but here is one link. Be sure to read the whole thing b/c if you just read the first question and answer under "home construction section" you may be mislead into thinking homme construction in general doesn't qualify. That is not true. The question just pertains to the DATES in that one example.

After reading this, I recommend you call the IRS's 1-800 number and ask them whether you qualify. They will go thru a number of questions with you and tell you whether you qualify.

One criteria is that you have to be moved into the new home by June 20, 2010 so if you haven't signed a contract to build yet, you'll have to get cracking. BTW - if the builder says he can be done in time for you to be moved in in time to claim the credit, I would insist that it be part of the contract that if FOR ANY REASON he fails to meet the deadline, your price drops by the $6500 amount that you would otherwise have been able to claim as a tax credit.

Here is a link that might be useful: link to faqs about new home tax credit

Geothermal, solar hot water and pv. There might be a few others but those are the ones that some to mind. I think wind power also.

The only energy star credits for new construction are Geothermal and solar hot water. IMO a person would be a fool to not use geothermal with this program. I just went through this. Complete HVAC system with a airsource heat pump was $9200. Complete geothermal with vertical wells was $15000. After the 30% rebate of $4500 it was only $1300 difference. That's a no brainer!

In addition to the IRS, local energy suppliers often have credits/rebates for energy efficient systems.

I have been wondering the same thing, Heather! We just started our house last week and are choosing windows right now.

Geothermal costs.....never thought of it that way. But, most our new yard is going to be taken up with the septic field, and I don't want to lose more trees to do geothermal.

Hey thanks everyone for the responses. I'm bummed that there aren't really rebates available for new constructions besides the few areas that were on my wish list....geothermal, solar....geothermal was a big want of mine, but we just couldn't swing the extra money and have opted for a pretty tight home with spray foam and radiant inflow heat on both levels (cement floors!). Just trying to see if we could save a buck here or there :)

Yes, there is a max of $1500 for a variety of things...windows, insulation, exterior doors, etc....we just had our taxes done and in Michigan we received a credit for our insulation because that was enough to get the max 1500. Check with your local tax guy. I agree that online is confusing!

Right now, the tax credits are far and few in between. That said, you can get a rebate from the builder if you buy direct from the builder. In www.NewHomesAmerica.com, you will find a list of those participating builders. List of cities and states where to find them. The cool thing is, there is nothing to lose. Now, you get the money back after the purchase of the sale, so you can't use it for closing costs but you get a nice chunk of money back a few weeks later. Check it out........... 1.25% of the home price.

Here is a link that might be useful: NewHomesAmerica.com

We received several rebates which were paid out upon request. I think they included hot water heater, appliances, a couple from the utility and cooperatives.

Chad, even hate to mention this since your geothermal sounds so much less than ours. Ours was $42,000, with almost $13,000 in tax credt ... which we can't claim until next year. We also got $1000 on the dual fuel heat pump from the energy cooperative. Our geothermal cost included 5 ton vertical loop system (five- 200 foot shafts), heat pump, back up furnace, programmable thermostats, radiant floor heating (I think 6 zones), humidifier, hot water heater, air filter, all ducting, labor etc, etc. Without looking at the bid, I can't remember all it included. I guess it's hard to compare if you're not comparing apples to apples.

I'm estimating out total rebate/tax credits were between $17,000 and $20,000. Our builder and several of the subs were the ones who told us about the rebates we weren't aware of. They even gave us the forms.

Windows, doors, insulation, etc can NOT apply to new construction for federal income tax. That is pretty clear from the IRS info. For geothermal, can be claimed for the tax year you take occupancy, not necessarily when it's installed. Also, income limits apply to the new home $6500 credit, but no income limitations for the geothermal.

Thanks for the info to all that input to this site.
We had a house built in 2010 and we made decisions on many of our purchases based on the fact that our GC said we would get tax credits of up to 30% per item. It sounded like it was a $1500 max per item so we were anticipating credits for a lot of things, for example foreplace $4100 which we thought would be $1500, windows also energy star rated $12,000, so we were expecting another $1500 for that, and the same with insulation, heating, etc. Very dissapointing.

I am building a home in decatur, ga (footings were finished yesterday!) and it will be complete in mid september of this year. Where do I look for tax credits that I can count?

For new construction, you can take a credit for Geothermal, Solar, Wind, and Fuel cells.

Your builder, window salesman, or Aunt Sally may insist otherwise so refer to the attached link which is an official site.

Your local utility may have some rebates or may not.

Here is a link that might be useful: Energy Efficient Tax Credits

Federal Stimulus Bill has tax rebates for upgrades that you perform on your home, up to $1,500.00 (30% of costs. This can be a great incentive to make your home more energy efficient, which will also help you bring your monthly energy costs down.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cool Roofs