There is a fair amount of confusion about the new $8,000 tax credit available to qualifying first-time home buyers. In the past, first-time buyers could get a $7,500 credit, but it had to be repaid to the government over time. The new credit does not have to be repaid, and can be claimed on either your 2008 or 2009 tax return. For instance, if you bought a home for the first time in 2008, but have already filed your taxes without taking the credit, you can claim it on your 2009 returns. Essentially, it is a one-time gift from the government toward the purchase of your first home.

The video above from the Illinois Association of Realtors explains the tax credit in more detail, as does Mary Ellen Podmolik in her weekly column in the Chicago Tribune.

Still waiting for that $100 refund from Peoples Energy? Yeah, so are we. And it seems that we’ll be waiting a little longer while they haggle with the Illinois Commerce Commission over the wording of the settlement in which they agree to reimburse natural gas customers $100 million, or $100 each, for allegedly overcharging them between 2000 and 2004.

The ICC was expected to finalize the settlement yesterday, but Peoples Energy balked at a final change to the wording that indicated they had acted “imprudently.” The Sun-Times reports that Peoples Energy filed a statement with the ICC saying they, “have not and do not admit any wrongdoing or liabilities in the settlement.” And here’s $100 million to remember that too, because we always hand out nine-figure settlements when we don’t do anything wrong. Once Peoples Energy is finished passing the buck, it will take up to 30 days to begin crediting customer bills with refunds.

Of course, they might be a little testy with the ICC because they just nicked them for $500,000 for failing to comply with gas meter inspection regulations. State and federal law requires that gas companies inspect meters for leaks on a regular basis, but over the past five years Peoples Gas has only checked only 25 percent of its quota. Of course, that’s not their fault either: they blame residential customers who aren’t home or ignore requests to let inspectors in.

• Ever wonder how builders can work through all that snow? Contractors don’t slow down during winter months, but they do have to take special precautions to make sure concrete and masonry cures properly.
• The cost of living in college dorms has risen so high that some students have been finding ways to apply for government-subsidized housing intended for low income families. But starting next week, new rules passed by Congress will take the student’s parents’ income into consideration in most cases, even if the student claims to be living independently.
• Home heating retailers say sales of wood-burning stoves are up anywhere from 30 to 50 percent this season as people search for lower-cost heating and cooking alternatives to gas.
• Maybe you can’t afford the dream of living off the grid in one fell swoop, but you can start using enough solar power to make a difference, little by little.
• Rising interest rates are starting to squeeze homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages, no longer able to bail themselves out by refinancing their home based on double-digit price appreciation.
• Having trouble choosing cabinet finishes? Check out this guide to new cabinet options.
• More buyers are making offers with home sale contingencies, citing longer market times as reason to safeguard their position before committing to a new home. In a hot market, submitting an offer contingent upon selling an existing home would weaken a buyer’s negotiating position, because other buyers would likely be willing to make an offer with no such restrictions. But as the market cools, more people are willing to take this risk in order to make sure they have the proceeds from the sale of their home in hand for a downpayment.