Buy Now to take Advantage of the New Home Tax Credit

Now might be the best time to buy, to reap the benefits of the $8,000 new home tax credit, new homes must be closed on by November 30th. Read below to find out more about the new home tax credit and why looking for a new home now might be your best option.

First Time Home Buyers Need to Purchase Now to Qualify for Tax Credit
April 29, 2009 · Published By Editor

Federal Tax Credit for First Time Home Buyers is Contingent on Closing Home Sale by November 30th
(Scottsdale, AZ) – Time is running out for home buyers looking to purchase their first home and qualify for the $8,000 Federal tax credit. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) first time home buyers looking to purchase a new home in 2009 and take advantage of the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit, should do so immediately in order to qualify. The Federal tax credit is contingent upon closing the home sale prior to the November 30th deadline. New home buyers must be aware with new construction homes, the tax credit deadline applies to the “purchase” or closing date, not the date the sales contract is signed. Taking into account the time the entire building process takes, prospective buyers looking to take advantage of this tax credit should plan on purchasing their new home no later than May 31st. Buyers need to be aware of the lengthy “front-end” details that need to be determined before any building can begin. They must determine a location, community, builder, floor plan, options and obtain mortgage approval, all of which can eat up valuable time with the approaching November 30th deadline. With new homes, buyers choose the home site, floor plan and individual options that meet their needs and lifestyles. New homes also come with full warranties unlike re-sale homes that may need costly repairs and upgrades.

“There is no question that there are numerous benefits available now for the first time home buyers including interest rates hovering around a 30-year low and FHA limits of up to $346,250 in addition to the tax credit,” said Ken Peterson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Shea Homes.

Could Renting help the Economy?

The argument for renting. In this economy we need to become flexible, travel where work is available, and be able to have more cash in pocket instead of paying for a mortgage you may not be able to afford. In this commentary, on an article found in the Atlantic Monthly, is one man’s stand for renting instead of buying. Could you help the economy and yourself simply by renting?

4/30/2009
QUARTERLIFE CHRONICLES: Rescuing the economy by renting rather than buying
It turns out I’m part of the solution for fixing the economy.

It’s not because I’m unimaginably wealthy and about to embark on a spending spree, or that I plan to open a business and employee thousands of people.

No, I’m doing my part simply by living in an apartment.

According to the cover story in the March edition of The Atlantic, renting benefits the economy. Who knew the fact that I can’t afford a down payment on a house was actually the glue holding this country together economically?

The article, written by Richard Florida, says that renters aren’t tied down to one location, so they’re freer to move from town to town as emerging industries and new jobs dictate. The also don’t have the long-term burden of a mortgage – sometimes for homes they can’t really afford – and may be more inclined to spend on other things.

I can see what he means.

I’ve lived in four places since I graduated college, and my job was a factor in each move. I suppose if some sort of amazing opportunity arose in the future I wouldn’t be opposed to moving again.

But if I had to worry about selling a house, I might not be so quick to pack up and leave.

I was talking with a friend over the holidays, and he told me that he had taken a new job, even though he and his wife had just bought a new house. The new job required a move, so he and his wife packed up and headed for another new house in a different town.

The thing is, he wasn’t able to get rid of his old house.

So, while he did end up making the move, he’s saddled with paying two mortgages until the housing market rebounds and he can find a buyer. While I didn’t ask him how it was affecting his spending habits, I imagine he’s not tossing a lot of cash around at the local mall these days.

But Florida says in his article that, despite the economic burden buying a home can create, people will do almost anything to do so -which is probably why so many took loans for houses they knew they couldn’t afford.

Florida says homeownership needs to be removed from its “long-privileged place at the center of the U.S. economy” and that it has been falsely placed in “the center of the American Dream.”

He argues that while homeownership does increase things like civic involvement, a recent study showed that it does not increase happiness, decrease stress or boost self-esteem.

I find that interesting because, as someone who never has owned a home and likely won’t for years to come, homeownership appears to me a distant Shangri-La I’m striving to someday reach.

I guess I never really thought about the downside to owning a house. I always pictured what I would do if someone else didn’t own the place in which I was living – the improvements, the landscaping, tearing down that hideous wallpaper.

But now that I think about it, renting isn’t half bad.

People often say to me that paying rent is just throwing away cash and that I’d be better off using that money for a mortgage.

But what if all of a sudden I can’t pay that mortgage?

What if I need to move, and no one wants to buy my house?

I never really thought I’d find a silver lining to not being able to buy a house. But rescuing the economy? That’s not too shabby.

Contact David Mekeel: 610-371-5014 or dmekeel@readingeagle.com.

Turn Around in Virginia? Experts Say YES!

With housing prices dropping and an $8,000 tax credit for first time buyers, home sales in Richmond rose at the end of March. Could this mean a market turn-around is in store for the Richmond area? Now may be the perfect time to look for that new home! Read the article below for more details about the turn-around for the Richmond housing market.

Hints of Upturn Evident in Va. Home Sales
Friday, April 24, 2009 11:56 AM

(Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)
By Carol Hazard, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

Apr. 24–Home sales in Virginia — including the Richmond area — continue to fall along with housing prices, but signs are emerging that the worst could be over, according to a report released yesterday by the Virginia Association of Realtors.

“We may be past the bottom — perhaps, perhaps,” John McClain, senior fellow at George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, said during a news media conference call about Virginia’s housing market for the first quarter.

“The positive signs are the national indicators are no longer in a free fall,” McClain said.

In Virginia, the median price of a house, with half selling for more and half for less, was $223,221, down 14.1 percent from the year-earlier period, according to the Realtors’ report.

However, the price was up 7.8 percent from the October-to-December period of 2008, indicating that prices could have reached bottom, housing experts said.

Statewide sales in the first quarter dropped 7.1 from the previous quarter and 4.7 percent from a year ago.

In perspective, sales are down 61 percent from their peak in the third quarter of 2005.

In the Richmond area, sales fell 18.2 percent from a year ago. The median sales price dropped 11 percent to $198,702, according to the report.

“The first quarter was bad; the numbers are down pretty good from last year,” said Don Atkinson, president of the Richmond Association of Realtors and general manager of Hometown Realty.

But the market turned around toward the end of March, he said.

“In April, we are seeing what appears to be a stronger market. People are starting to understand that prices are pretty doggoned good and interest rates are extremely low.”

Plus, people in the market for a home for the first time in three years shouldn’t let an $8,000 tax credit pass them by, he said.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the effects of the stimulus money yet,” he said, referring to the new tax credit and federal money aimed at helping people avoid foreclosures.

The boost in activity shows that the regional housing market is responding to seasonal upticks that would be expected under normal conditions, according to a report by the Central Virginia Regional Multiple Listing Service. With the recession deepening in the first quarter, many real estate experts were uncertain that the spring housing season ever would come.

Nationally, the spring selling season is getting off to a lackluster start with sales falling more than expected from February levels, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday.

U.S. home sales fell 3 percent to an annual rate of 4.57 million in March from a downwardly revised pace of 4.71 million units in February, the Realtors group said.

The median U.S. sales price in March was $175,200, a plunge of 12 percent from a year ago. Prices are expected to keep sinking as long as demand remains sluggish.

The central Virginia report shows the average number of days a house spends on the market in the Richmond area fell from 81 in January to 72 in March.

Most houses sold in the Richmond area in the first quarter were in the $100,000 to $199,999 price range. The next popular price range was $200,000 to $299,999. Only six houses sold for $1 million or more.

Elsewhere in Virginia, Prince William County and Manassas — with the most foreclosures in the state in 2008 — recorded the sharpest increase in sales, up 75.9 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. Median sale prices there fell 37.2 percent to $167,452 — the largest percentage drop in the state.

Sales in Northern Virginia rose 17.5 percent from a year ago, and median sales prices fell 19.5 percent to $325,400, the highest price in the state.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Copyright (c) 2009, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

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Can you Time the Bottom?

Here is an interesting article about why home buyers are waiting to time the bottom. Question is can you ever time the bottom perfectly?

Homebuyers hope to time the bottom
By J.W. ELPHINSTONE – 1 hour ago

With white tin ceilings, original woodwork, bay windows, and a $699,000 price tag, the two-bedroom apartment at 719 Carroll St. in Brooklyn would have been snatched up in a New York minute a couple of years ago.

Instead, it’s been on the market for more than two months. On a recent spring weekend 14 buyers came through, and still no bids.

“We’re in the early stages of the search,” said Joanna Brett, 33, as she checked out the apartment with Sarah Madigan. “We’ve been looking on and off for six months.”

Welcome to the spring selling season.

The number of house hunters out this spring is an encouraging sign that the real estate market is beginning to turn around. There’s just one problem — a lot of them are in no hurry to buy, according to interviews with dozens of shoppers at open houses last weekend.

The market’s turning point will be tough to predict, because it will be gradual and obscured by conflicting signs like recent housing reports that showed sales of previously occupied homes fell 3 percent from February to March, while new home sales seemed to have bottomed out.

Even more puzzling for homebuyers, economists expect sales volumes to recover at least six months before home prices stabilize.

“Prices will continue to fall sharply this spring and summer and will stabilize at year’s end,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com.

In March, the median price for a new home dropped 12 percent from a year ago to $201,400, and the price tag for a previously owned home also fell 12 percent to $168,200.

The real estate crisis, fueled by reckless lending and borrowing from 2001 through 2006, triggered not only the U.S. recession but also a global financial meltdown. And the nascent signs of recovery in the housing market could be short-lived if employers continue to lay off staff in bulk.

The speed of real estate recovery also varies by region. Since February, sales volumes have been trending upward at different rates in 50 major metro areas tracked in The Associated Press-Re/Max Monthly Housing Report. The report includes transactions from all real estate agents in the metro areas, regardless of company affiliation.

Compared with March of last year, sales are only up in 10 cities — all of them saturated with deeply discounted foreclosures. In San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Miami and Orlando, Fla., for example, sales volumes are up at least 50 percent over last year.

“A quarter of the purchases this year in Vegas have been cash purchases, so that’s crazy,” said Craig Stott, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Premier Realty. “You have a lot of investors back in the market.”

Home values in Sin City have cratered by 50 percent since their peak. And that has made buyers like Erik Sandu cautious.

“I’m not sure that we’ve hit (bottom) yet,” Sandu, a 37-year-old advertising executive, said while checking out a $525,000 five-bedroom house in Las Vegas.

In a few markets around the country, sales are still deteriorating. Detroit and Cleveland, Ohio, where there is an exodus of unemployed auto workers, are among them.

Home sales also reversed course last month in Fargo, N.D., where sandbags were taller than for-sale signs after the Red River busted over its banks.

For prospective homebuyers, who are weighing what is often the biggest financial decision of their lives, the decision to buy this spring can be a sleep-wrecker.

In the yes-column: Many can now get the lowest mortgage rates they’ve ever seen, an $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers, and huge discounts on foreclosed or must-sell properties.

In the no-column: Record foreclosures are still inundating many markets and driving home prices down, at the same time employers are handing out pink slips by the thousands, making home shoppers nervous.

The majority of prospective homebuyers interviewed at open houses last weekend were like Amy Borgognoni and Seth Cuni — in no hurry to make an offer.

The couple in Raleigh, N.C., is looking to buy a home after their wedding in the fall. They toured a $549,000 four-bedroom home near downtown.

“We’re just browsing for now,” said Borgognoni, 33. “We’ll do one stressful thing at a time.”

The agent showing the house, Graham Young of Prudential Realty, said, “We’ve had some people who have shown some serious interest, but they just haven’t made an offer.”

There are, of course, real estate shoppers who are now ready to go all the way.

Mark and Linda Fussell have been renting in New York for 10 months after moving from Austin, Texas, where they owned a home. The couple want to buy before their lease expires in July.

When interviewed last Sunday, they had visited seven open houses already and had three more to go. They found the two-bedroom rowhouse apartment with original woodwork, tin ceilings and a private deck “a pleasant surprise” for $699,000.

“We’re aggressively looking,” said Linda Fussell, 43, a teacher at the United Nations. “We want to make a decision no matter what.”

But while foot traffic at open houses — especially in foreclosures and other must-sell homes — is up from the winter doldrums, hesitation still reigns.

“We’re just driving around, just starting the process,” said Victor De Rossi, 33, a renter in Miami. “If I don’t find the right house, we’ll just rent another year.”

If he buys he will qualify for the tax credit for first-time homeowners, but he said that won’t sway his decision.

Suzanne Allred, a Salt Lake City real estate agent, said it’s hard to gauge the effect of the tax credit when it comes to motivating buyers, but she thinks “it’s playing a part.”

The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that first-time homebuyers snapped up half of all homes sold last month.

Allred blamed the weak foot traffic last Sunday to spring weather and the Utah Jazz playoff game happening at the same time. The 2,300-square-foot house with designer colors and French doors she was showing was listed for $485,000.

“It’s not the same market it was two years ago when this house would have sold in about two seconds,” she said.

Standing on the concrete stoop with the sun in her face and a plate of barely touched cookies just inside, Allred figures the market will rebound given time and patience.

“I’m hopeful,” she said. “Everything’s just taking longer than it used to.”

Associated Press Writers Barbara Rodriguez and Tom Foreman in Raleigh, N.C., Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas, Mike Stark in Salt Lake City and AP Real Estate Writer Adrian Sainz in Miami contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

2617 W. Broad St. • Richmond VA 23220

5000 sq ft. former restaurant space ready to be renovated to suit your needs. The property comes with over 40 parking spots will allow for high Occupancy. Great location and signage potential combined with the parking make this a great site for retail or restaurant. Located directly across from the Science Museum and Children’s Museum.

2617 W. Broad St.

Is Print Dead?

The New York Times reported today that The Richmond-Times Dispatch was announced as one of the first 100 newspaper websites to start using Zillow to power its online home search.

“On Wednesday, Zillow, based in Seattle, announced a partnership to lend its real estate search engine to the Web sites of more than 180 United States newspapers. For example, the online real estate section of the Richmond Times-Dispatch will now contain a Zillow-powered box geared toward homeowners or prospective buyers in central Virginia. The first 100 of Zillow Web sites go live today, and the remaining 80 will be unveiled throughout the rest of 2009.”

What does this mean for Newspaper advertising, which has been a mainstay for Realtors for decades? I think it is signalling the beginning of the end. Personally, our firm Snipes Properties hardly ever advertises in the paper and we are one of the Top 20 Realtor Teams in the entire Richmond Metro market. We focus all of our time using online resources, enhance our listings on highly trafficed websites, posting classified ads on sites like Craigslist and Trulia. We also use a propreitary listing syndication tool which distributes our listings to over 100 real estate web outlets. Right now, we are getting ready to change over all of our online ads from photos to video using You Tube and Quicktime to give buyers online a real life veiw of the properties we have listed. We still have clients who want to see their homes in print, but we are educating our customers about the search habits of buyers in today’s market. My opinion, Print is dead!

1600 Sq. Ft. homes at Parham Estates • Richmond VA

13 energy-efficient homes! Parham Estates is a proposed single-family residential subdivision in the West End of Henrico County. Drive times to employment centers and shopping are excellent; an elementary school is within walking distance. Snipes Properties is developing this subdivision for green EarthCraft™ builders.

Parham Estates

2200 Sq. Ft. homes at Parham Estates • Richmond VA 23229

13 energy-efficient homes! Parham Estates is a proposed single-family residential subdivision in the West End of Henrico County. Drive times to employment centers and shopping are excellent; an elementary school is within walking distance. Snipes Properties is developing this subdivision for green EarthCraft™ builders.

Parham Estates

1900 Sq. Ft. homes at Parham Estates • Richmond VA 23229

13 energy-efficient homes! Parham Estates is a proposed single-family residential subdivision in the West End of Henrico County. Drive times to employment centers and shopping are excellent; an elementary school is within walking distance. Snipes Properties is developing this subdivision for green EarthCraft™ builders.

Parham Estates