Question regarding the $8000 first time home buyer credit

[nietsni3]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TN and PA
my situation is a little tricky:
I have never owned a home. i am currently living (renting an apartment) and working in TN, and I'm considering buying my first house in my home state PA. I will have to live in TN for a few years until my work contract ends before i can return to PA. as a result, I won't be living in this home during that time (my parents will live in it instead). so I'm afraid that would disqualify this house as my "principal residence" and cause me to be ineligible for the $8000 credit. However, someone told me in order to be one's principal residence, the home just has to be listed on one's W-2, be one's main billing/mailing address and does not have to be lived in most of the time. another person even said i could maintain the "principal residence" status for this house in PA by claiming the period that i stayed in TN as "temporary absence from principal residence".

Could someone please provide some insight on this?

Thanks

[davew128]

What part of the home being YOUR principal residence was unclear? Put another, not even Joe Biden would be dumb enough to think that someone has a principal residence that they've never lived in.

[efflandt]

"Your main home is the one you live in most of the time." Some clues are the address on your driver's license, vehicle registration, bank records, income tax forms (do you want to pay PA income taxes?), etc.

For IRS purposes living anywhere for an undetermined period of time, especially if more than a year, is not temporary (unless qualified student or military).