I recently divorced my wife. In order to settle I bought our house from her. Since the home was joint property and I purchased it from my ex-wife would I qualify as a first time buyer?

No, for sure, on the $8,000 First Time Home Buyers Credit, because you owned the house jointly with your wife while married. The prior ownership excludes you from the credit.

As for the new $6,500 credit for those who previously owned a house, I would say no as well. If you were allowed to claim the new credit under the circumstance of buying from your ex-spouse, every married couple whose house deed is only in one of the couple's name ( a situation that often happens when one spouse has a horrible credit history when the house was first purchased) could then sell the house to the other spouse and claim the credit.

That is NOT what Congress intended when the law was passed, and I suspect the IRS will apply common sense when they eventually issue the rules on the new homebuyer's credit.