This is an audience participation post in which you are invited and encouraged to weigh-in with your opinions on one of our region’s most pressing economic issues. But first, read on.
Counting today, there are just 30 days to go before the first time homebuyer tax credit expires. For all intents and purposes, if you haven’t gone to contract on a home by now you probably won’t complete your purchase in time to qualify for the credit.
That’s bad news for many qualified buyers who have been in the market for months only to be frustrated at every turn by a system that refuses to budge. Perhaps they’ve been denied financing due to an incompetent appraisal by an out-of-town appraiser. Perhaps the appraisal was accurate, credit scores were good, but the lenders simply refuse to lend. Or perhaps they’ve been on the buyer side of a short-sale where the seller and the lender have been locked in limbo for six months or more. For these reasons—and because the tax credit has had such a positive impact on our market—we join Congress in its support for extending the deadline at least another six months. There’s agreement on both sides of the aisle—and among leading economists—that a recovering housing market is the prime catalyst that will lead the rest of the economy out of the wilderness.
The tax credit has been so effective in stimulating sales and stabilizing home prices that continuing it seems like a no-brainer in light of a housing market that still exhibits contradictory signs of recovery. Secondly, a significant new wave of foreclosures is in the pipeline that could easily undo much of the progress that has been made toward reducing inventory and firming-up prices. One of the key benefits of the tax credit is that it ignited a firestorm of sales that has helped shore-up home prices in spite of the unprecedented number of foreclosures and short sales.
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Hard to believe, but only two months remain before the November 30th deadline for earning the First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit. While that may still seem like quite a ways off, if you’re planning to join the 1.4 million American families who have already taken advantage of this popular incentive—but have yet to zero-in on a property—you may very well find yourself in a sprint to get your purchase in under the wire. This is not the sort of last-minute shopping that can be crammed into the few waning days before the cut-off date.
Even though the term First Time Home Buyer has been broadly interpreted to empower more people to qualify for the credit, if you truly are a first-time buyer you may not be fully aware of the time it takes to complete a real estate transaction. At this late date, you will ideally want to have your home picked out by early-October in order to close on it by mid-November; with an extra cushion of time left over to deal with any last-minute details.
Once you’ve found the right home, your work has just begun. In order for mortgage funds to be available at the time of closing, you must obtain a satisfactory credit report, a competent home appraisal, a commitment for home insurance, a complete home inspection and verification of personal data. Add to this the fact that you will not be alone in trying to accomplish all these musts as the deadline begins to loom large. Realtors, lenders, title companies, home inspectors and certified appraisers will no doubt be swamped by the last minute rush; in much the same way as car dealers were bombarded with buyers and a blizzard of paperwork as the Cash for Clunkers automotive incentive program entered its final days. (more…)
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How’s the Market in Englewood?
According to Barbara Fendley Saputo, branch manager of Michael Saunders & Company’s Englewood office, business to date in 2009 has surpassed 2008 in the same timeframe by 27 percent. Every component necessary to make this an opportune time for a buyer is in place:
Low interest rates
Reasonable prices
Favorable exchange rates for foreign buyers(more…)
The clock is ticking and we’re down to less than 5 months of available time to take advantage of the $8000 federal tax credit for first time home buyers. What are we all doing to market to and appeal to the pool of first time home buyers in our Sarasota/Manatee county markets? Housing prices are fantastic and mortgage interest rates are low creating a great opportunity to help many first time home buyers achieve the American Dream of home ownership. Michael Saunders & Company is well positioned to support the needs of the first time home buyer – a vast inventory of well priced properties in all segments of our market area (Best Opportunities will spot light some of the best bargains around), an experienced team of real estate sales professionals ready to walk the first time home buyer through the home buying process, as well as a team of mortgage originators with MSC Mortgage armed with an array of mortgage programs and products specifically designed for the first time home buyer. Lets get this information out to any and all first time home buyers in an effort to make sure everyone eligible for this tax credit takes advantage of the opportunity.
Speak to one of our MSC Loan officers at MSC Mortgage
SARASOTA, Florida—(June, 2009)—“Its very heartening to see that the sales momentum that built so impressively during the first four months of 2009 continued to be strong even as we transitioned from the busy winter season into our customarily slow summer months,” said Michael Saunders upon examining the latest sales statistics for May, just out from TRENDGRAPHIX..“With bottoming prices, low interest rates and extraordinary, limited-time-only buying incentives—like the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit—buyers are expressing their confidence in the market by stepping up to buy wherever they detect the best buying opportunities.”
“Sales continue to be disproportionately clustered in the under-$300,000 price range, thanks to prices that have been impacted by foreclosures and short sales; but sales are also occurring in every price range where sellers wisely list their homes in very close proximity to what comparable homes are actually selling for,” Saunders added.“The most encouraging news from this new data is that closed sales, although down slightly in most cases for May in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte Counties—as would be expected as we enter the slow summer months—largely held their own compared with April; while pending sales are way up compared with last May.Further, with most of these pending sales set to close in the next 30 to 60 days, it looks like the trend toward improved sales, established early this year, will continue throughout the summer.” (more…)
NAR’s report for May shows a nationwide uptick in the sale of existing homes and sited favorable affordability conditions and the first time buyer tax credit as the primary reasons:
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.77 million units in May from a downwardly revised level of 4.66 million units in April, but remained 3.6 percent below the 4.95 million-unit pace in May 2008.
It is encouraging to see the continued trend – the first nationwide back-to-back monthly gain since September 2005 – and Michael Saunders & Company recently posted our own area trend report for Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties. Unfortunately, month to month reports only tell a piece of the story. (more…)
The region’s beleaguered real estate market exhibits renewed strength with each passing month. Practically no one, not even the most skeptical observers, will dispute that the market has perked-up considerably. For most of this year, closed sales have steadily crept upwards, pending sales have taken a remarkable bounce; and the inventory of available homes has fallen-off sharply.
Buyers, once content to occupy the sidelines while prices remained in free-fall, have finally been jolted into action by prices that have not only leveled out but have actually begun to inch-up again in the under-$350,000 price range—along with (surprise, surprise) suddenly-rising interest rates. They are also anxious to close on their desired property before the First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit expires on December 1. Something of a misnomer, the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit is available to anyone who hasn’t owned a primary residence in the past three years.
There have been a number of articles lately addressing the union of bank owned properties and first-time homebuyers. On Friday, May 18th, RIS Media reports:
Value-conscious, first-time buyers have become key to the housing market’s recovery, and they are snapping up priced-right foreclosures despite the warts-and-all, sold-as-is condition of the properties. Half of the sales made in the year’s first quarter were to first-time buyers and almost half of all these sales were distressed properties, the National Association of Realtors reported. Distressed properties include foreclosures and short sales, which are private transactions in which a homeowner sells the property for less than the amount owed on a mortgage.
While experience shows this true to the most part – first time home buyers are the most active market for the REO’s we manage here in the Sarasota area – there is another trend that is not addressed. That is that the bank and corporate owners’ willingness in many cases to stick less stringently to marketing their properties in distressed condition. More than half of the REO properties sold by the Michael Saundes & Company REO division have had some lender required repairs made by the bank/corporate owners to facilitate a sale. (more…)
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This is an audience participation post in which you are invited and encouraged to weigh-in with your opinions on one of our region’s most pressing economic issues. But first, read on.
An invaluable resource is now available for you to promote the First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit.
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