Great news for those of you considering the purchase of your first home, though many of you may already be aware of it. Under the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,” an economic stimulus package designed to revitalize the housing market, all first-time home buyers who purchase or build a house in 2009 year will receive an $8,000 tax credit. Unlike the similar 2008 tax credit, this credit does not need to be repaid.

The good news is, there really aren’t that many catches to the plan. The credit covers 10 percent of the home’s value, up to a maximum of $8,000. In other words, if you purchased a home worth $65,000, you’d receive a tax credit of $6,500. To qualify for the credit, you must make less than $75,000 a year if you’re single, and less than $150,000 for married couples.

As defined by the tax credit website, a “first-time home buyer” is anyone “who has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase.” So if you owned a home four years ago, but have rented since then, you qualify as a first-time home buyer!

Feel free to check out the tax credit website and the “frequently asked questions” page for more info about this deal and a similar credit for those of you who bought or built a modular home in 2008.

Like we talked about previously on Modular Musings (here and here), there are many reasons why a modular home can be built faster than a stick-built home of similar design. Among those reasons is the efficiency of the factory construction process and the fact that while the modules are being built, the foundation and other site preparations can take place simultaneously.

This time savings becomes clear in a pie chart on the Modular Today website. As you can see on the right, the design phase of both modular and traditional homes takes the same amount of time, but the site prep time for the modular home has been combined with the construction time. Though it may be hard to tell, the construction time in the top chart is also slightly less than the bottom due to the efficiency of the modular construction process.

All of this adds up to the ability to build a modular home in 25 percent less time than a stick-built home.

A few weeks ago, we told you about a modular home in Utah made from two metal grain silos. The only problem is, that home just sort of sat there, stuck to its foundation. How much fun is that? Now imagine a house that could walk around on six insect-like legs. That’s exactly the vision a Dutch design firm had when they created the walking house you see on the right.

The house – about 10 feet high, 10 feet wide and roughly 12 feet long – is modular in nature because it can be connected to other walking houses to create a walking village. The designers themselves said: “Walking house is a modular dwelling system that enables persons to live a peaceful nomadic life, moving slowly through the landscape or cityscape with minimal impact on the environment.”

And, as you would expect for such a futuristic design, the walking house is environmentally friendly, featuring solar panels and micro windmills, as well as a rain water collection system and a solar hot water heater. Its pace is only about 200 feet per hour, so you’re not likely to use it for long distance travel, but imagine being able to move your home around a bit for a change in scenery or to put a little distance between you and a noisy neighbor?