Pending Home Sales Continue to Rise
Pending home sales rose once again, marking eight consecutive monthly gains – the longest streak since measurement began in 2001, according to National Association of REALTORS®.
http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2009110201?OpenDocument

Vote on Tax Credit Expected this Week
An amendment that would extend the first-time homebuyer tax credit has been incorporated into a Senate bill to prolong unemployment benefits. The amendment to the bill, introduced last Thursday by majority leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., would extend the tax credit to apply to homes under contract by May 1. Homebuyers would have to close by July 1 to claim a credit equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price, up to $8,000.
http://www.ncrealtors.org/news_display.cfm?nid=1104

Economists: Recovery to be Slow and Steady
A large majority of economists are now pointing to the recent stock market rally as a sign of sustainable recovery. Economists warn, however, that the recovery will be slow and many do not see home values bottoming out until the first half of 2010 or later.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-11-01-survey-recovery-economy_N.htm

NAR Praises Extension of Higher Loan Limits
The National Association of REALTORS® recently thanked Congress for speedy action in passing a congressional resolution late last week that would extend the current Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA loan limits through 2010. President Obama signed the resolution shortly after it was passed by Congress.
http://www.realtor.org/RMODaily.nsf/pages/News2009103002?OpenDocument

By now many of you have heard about the possibility of the first time homebuyer tax credit being extended and having it opened to current homeowners in certain cases. I pasted a link above to an article I read which gives more detail of the proposal. CNN.com also has a good article summarizing the proposal also. For now, the gray area I see which will become a tax question best left for the IRS and CPAs. The question will be regarding current homeowners, since it states you must be a current homeowner for the past 5 years, my question will surround those who just sold such as in the case of a Corporate Relo and are only temporarily living in a rental, apartment or corporate housing. Will there be rules or limits to protect these new buyers? Since the plan isn’t official yet, the accountants I spoke with of course cannot answer that because there is no guidance in place as of yet.   I will try to gather this information in the days and weeks ahead as the lay of the land becomes more clear.
 
Either way, it’s a great thing. Many first time homebuyers were in a frenzy trying to get closed by 11/30 which was leading to a lot of panic amongst agents, lenders, brokers and attorneys to try to fit everything in and make these priority 1.  It should give a nice spike over the winter months as well along with getting current homeowners to possibly explore the possibility of purchasing a new home.
 
If we can be of any assistance please let us know. Thanks as always for the opportunity to have helped.

Check the Link: http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/the-home-front/2009/10/29/first-time-home-buyer-tax-credit-gets-obama-nod.html

Homebuilder Confidence Jumps
In a strong sign that the housing market may be picking up, builder confidence in April made its most dramatic increase in nearly seven years, according to an industry report.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/15/news/economy/

housing_market_index/index.htm?postversion=2009041513

Obama Launches Mortgage Rescue Plan
The Treasury Department announced last week the first six participants to sign up for President Obama’s loan modification program. They include three of the nation’s largest banks: JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. The others are GMAC Mortgage, Saxon Mortgage Services and Select Portfolio Servicing.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/15/real_estate/

obama_mortgage_plan/index.htm?postversion=2009041610

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.