Archive for March, 2009

Market Headlines

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Surprise! Housing Starts Surge
Housing construction posted a surprisingly large increase in February, bolstered by strength in all parts of the country except the West. The surge in construction was a dramatic shift from the continued decline economists had expected.
http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1447476.html

Whose Loan Is Eligible for Modification Under the Obama Plan?
The Treasury Department recently released a report which includes eligibility requirements to determine which homeowners qualify for relief under the plan. Follow the link below for information on eligibility requirements as specified in the guidelines.
http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20090317_loaneligible.htm

Homebuyer Tax Credit Website Attracts Record Number of Visitors

A record 844,000 prospective homebuyers visited the National Association of Home Builders’ FederalHousingTaxCredit.com Website in February to learn about the new $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers that was enacted last month.
http://www.realtrends.com/go/view_media.php?mp_id=7862&cat_id=1282&PHPSESSID=
6fb4ab65a4073c1d3c2f8e4ca9676697


House Charlotte Funds

Friday, March 13th, 2009

This is a great tool to buy with in Charlotte!

The House Charlotte program is a wonderful down payment assistance program that provides home buying education and financial assistance to prospective homebuyers. On average, buyers can expect to receive financial assistance of $7,500 and in certain cases, as much as $10,000 towards the purchase of a home.

Additionally, the program provides a special incentive to Police officers of up to $15,000 towards the purchase of a home.

The eligibility requirements of this generous program are as follows:

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Families must have 110% or less of the local median income.
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Participants must become certified by completing eight hours of pre-purchase homebuyer education.
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The home must be the family’s primary residence (not investment property).
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The home must be located in one of 87 designated neighborhoods throughout Charlotte.
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The purchase price of the home cannot exceed $147,000.


Buyer Tax Credit Explained

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Another month passing us by and I hope that we are on the verge of a great Spring. Rates have certainly cooperated as we see the light at the end of the tunnel which we call Winter. I get asked a lot of questions regarding the stimulus package and what it means to everyone along with questions about the past year’s tax credit and the most recent one. There is so much varying and confusing information out there, I went to the source for all of my tax questions. I have attached some information he shared with me and have cut and pasted directly below what Matt relayed to me. I certainly cannot and don’t pretend to ever answer tax questions so I usually will give Matt’s name to clients in order to get specific answers to questions.

Hope this helps. So at this point the $7500 credit (interest free loan) applies for qualified first time home buyers who purchased 4/9/08-12/31/08 and the $8000 credit (not to be paid back) qualified for 1/1-12/31/09 qualified buyer. …also make sure they know they have to stay there at least 36months. As I understand it the 15k credit was the preliminary talk in the house, but did not pass.