Some exciting news announced regarding homebuyers accessing the $8000tax credit up front for use with down-payment / closing costs!! Weshould know more about the "HOW TO" aspect of applying this $8000 via abridge loan in the coming days. But for now know a solution is coming.
"HUD Secretary Announces Monetization of Tax Credit at NAR Real EstateSummitWASHINGTON (May 12, 2009) - Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development, said that the FederalHousing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allowhomeowners to use the $8,000 tax credit as a downpaypment."Kelli Harris
Coldwell Banker Home Loans
678-984-7304
WASHINGTON — Thousands of first-time homebuyers will be able to get short-term loans so they can quickly make use of a new $8,000 tax credit that was designed to boost the battered U.S. housing market.
The Federal Housing Administration on Friday released details of a plan in which borrowers who use FHA loans can get advances from lenders that effectively let them receive the credit before they complete their taxes.
The FHA had no estimate of how many borrowers would qualify. But the agency, which backs about a quarter of new home loans, is projected to guarantee about 2.2 million loans in the next budget year.
Borrowers can claim the credit by filing an amended 2008 tax return or can wait for their 2009 return.
The change "will present an enormous benefit for communities struggling to deal with an oversupply of housing," Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a statement.
Borrowers will still have to come up with the FHA's required 3.5 percent down payment, unless they work through a state or local housing program. But officials say the money can still be used for closing costs or a larger down payment.
The tax credit was included in the economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama in February.
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May 29, 2009 - 10:40 a.m. EDT
Since cresting in 2007, metro Atlanta’s average price has dropped 21 percent, compared to Los Angeles, where prices have plunged nearly 40 percent, or Las Vegas, where average prices have been almost cut in half.
(S&P/Case-Shiller index)
ajc.com story:
Decline of Atlanta home prices slowing
Published: May 27, 2009
Mortgage applications filed last week fell a seasonally adjusted 14.2 percent, week-over-week, as rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose, according to the Mortgage Banker’s Association’s weekly survey.
To continue reading, go to: http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/05/25/daily18.html?surround=etf
A day after a private industry report showed a slowdown in declining housing prices, a government report finds a similar trend.
To continue reading, go to: http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/05/25/daily31.html?surround=etf
Sales of previously owned homes rose more than expected in April, though the pace of sales remains below year ago levels.
A panel of 45 U.S. economists expects a "modest" economic rebound to begin in the second half of 2009, picking up steam in 2010, the National Association for Business Economics said Wednesday.
To continue reading, go to: http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/05/25/daily29.html?surround=etf
The Conference Board's Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose this month, the latest sign that an economic recovery may be around the corner.
To continue reading, go to: http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/05/18/daily86.html?surround=etf
Sales of existing homes edged up 2.9 percent from March to April, but inventory swelled by 8.8 percent as sellers entered the spring market, the National Association of Realtors said today.
Home prices fell sharply in February, but for the first time in 16 months the annual pace of deterioration slowed.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124092346703363431.html
How do you interpret a mixed bag of numbers? That's the big question for housing right now.
On the one hand, you can focus on the latest home resale and pricing numbers just released by the National Association of Realtors and say: "We've got some big problems here!"
The national median house price dropped by 13.8 percent in the last 12 months. Only 18 or 152 major markets surveyed saw price increases.
That sounds ominous.
On the other hand, you've got to take notice of the fact that a record high percentage of total sales in former boom markets have been "distressed" -- either foreclosures or short sales.
Distressed sales are pulling down the median price numbers at the national level -- even though non-distressed, arms-length sales in the majority of markets have experienced only small to moderate declines in prices.
As Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors puts it, the real estate market today is "bifurcated," with fire-sale low prices in foreclosure transactions that are co-existing with much higher, more normal prices in the same metropolitan area for non-distressed properties.
Also, there's an important flip side to low median prices: Sales are booming in many markets where prices have fallen most sharply. Check out these numbers: Sales in the first quarter jumped by an amazing 117 percent in Nevada, 81 percent in California, 50 percent in Arizona and 25 percent in Florida compared with year-earlier levels.
Those high sales rates are also burning off unsold inventories and cutting total listings in some markets. In a survey of 29 major metropolitan markets, Zip Realty found total listings declined by 3.6 percent in April compared with March.
Meanwhile low-cost mortgage money continues to provide the jet fuel propelling higher sales. The Mortgage Bankers Association's latest monthly survey found that new loan applications increased a little last week - about half a percentage point over the week before -- and rates fell again after two straight weeks of increases.
Average thirty year fixed mortgage rates now are around four and three quarters percent, and fifteen year fixed rates are about four and a half percent - both are just above all time lows.
Qualifying for a mortgage can still be a challenge, since Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and major lenders continue to look for large downpayments -- other than for FHA loans -- and higher FICO credit scores than they did during the boom years.
So yes absolutely, it' s a mixed bag, but the overall direction is positive, even on tougher mortgage standards.
The rumors were true……
Federal officials on Monday reversed an earlier decision to allow first-time home buyers to use an $8,000 tax credit to borrow the down payment on a home.
A week earlier, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan had told the National Association of Home Builders that HUD would let banks and local governments offer short-term "bridge loans" to cover the down payment for first-time buyers eligible for the tax credit. The loans would have been available to applicants for federally insured mortgages such as Federal Housing Administration loans.
Lenders, home builders and real- estate agents had reacted favorably to the bridge-loan proposal, saying it would open up the housing market to more first-time buyers.
However, not everyone was in favor of using the tax credit as collateral on a down-payment loan."That tax credit should be savings, not debt," said Patricia Garcia-Duarte, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services in Phoenix.
Garcia-Duarte said the proposal too closely resembled a now-illegal practice known as seller-funded down-payment assistance, which allowed a home's seller to "gift" the down payment to a specific buyer through a non-profit organization.Phoenix loan originator Dean Wegner was among the housing-industry professionals who had expressed enthusiasm about the bridge-loan plan.
Wegner said the program would have boosted local home sales, but he added that the bridge loans likely would have come with a high interest rate.
The loans also could have created income-tax issues, according to the IRS officials who shot down HUD's plan.Still, Wegner remains optimistic that the government will seek other means to circumvent the FHA's required 3.5 percent down payment.
"They will probably come out with a zero-down FHA loan starting January 1, once the $8,000 goes away," he said.
An index that gauges builder confidence for single-family homes jumped two points in May, to its highest level since September 2008, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
The May gain in the Wells Fargo-NAHB Housing Market Index followed a five-point rise in April.
The index is based on a survey of builders, who rate current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as "good," "fair" or "poor." They also rate traffic by prospective buyers to new homes.
Scores for each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good.
Two out of three components of the index rose in May. The index component gauging current sales conditions rose two points to 14, while the component gauging sales expectations for the next six months rose three points to 27. The index gauging traffic of prospective buyers remained steady, at 13.
NAHB Chairman Joe Robson, a homebuilder from Tulsa, Okla., in a statement added that affordable prices, a large inventory of for-sale homes and an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers provide "a very appealing set of reasons to make a move."
--Riya V. Anandwala
When selling a house, clients were apt to believe their homes were worth more than Realtors' recommended listing price 69 percent of the time. Some 35 percent had a price in mind that was 10 to 20 percent greater than the Realtor's recommendation, and 10 percent were convinced their home was worth 21 percent or more than the Realtor's recommended listing price.
Buyers, on the other hand, thought homes for sale were overpriced 63 percent of the time, Realtors reported. About 30 percent thought homes were overpriced by 10-20 percent. Only 17 percent thought homes were underpriced, while 19 percent of buyers saw homes as fairly priced, Realtors reported.
Homegain Survey May 6-11
Governor Perdue Signs Housing Tax Credit
Thu 10:08am
On Monday, May 11, Governor Sonny Perdue signed legislation into law that creates a new state income tax credit for home purchases in Georgia. The tax credit will apply to purchases of eligible properties between June 1 and November 30, 2009, and is expected to spur activity in the housing market. Passage of this bill was the top legislative priority for the Georgia Association of REALTORS® in 2009.House Bill 261 provides an income tax credit for the purchase of a single-family residence during the six months between June 1 and November 30, 2009. The credit amount is the lesser of $1,800 or 1.2 percent of the purchase price. The tax credit is applied over three years, with one-third of the credit available each year. If a the amount of the credit exceeds the taxpayer's tax liability, the unused credit may carry forward to the next tax year.The credit created by HB 261 may be claimed one time per taxpayer. The final version of the bill contains the GAR amendment to clarify condominiums and residences occupied at the time of sale are eligible for the credit. In addition, eligible single family residences include:• New single-family residences; • Previously occupied residences that were for sale prior to May 11, 2009. and are still for sale after May 11, 2009; • Owner-occupied residences in which the owner’s acquisition debt is in default on or before March 1, 2009; and • Residences where a foreclosure has taken place and are owned by the mortgagor or the mortgagor’s agent. This tax credit is in addition to the federal first-time home buyer tax credit, which is available to only those buyers who have not owned a home during the last three years."I'm proud of Governor Perdue for signing this legislation, and I'm proud to have brought it before the state legislature," said bill sponsor Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah). "This bill will put people back to work, reduce the inventory of unsold homes, and kick-start Georgia's economy."source: www.abr.org
Good Signs
by Bernice_Ross
The markets still may be frosty, but there are plenty of signs that the deep freeze in the real estate market may be beginning to thaw.
If the experts say it's so … Is the real estate market slowly moving towards recovery? A number of experts seem to think so.
After reviewing the latest data on home sales, construction and consumer spending, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, observed that the economy is improving.
Click here to read more on our site
NAR Blog
http://www.realtor.org/research/economists_outlook/commentaries
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