Continue Reading November 6th, 2009
pThe National Association of Realtors Web site has a nice a href=”http://www.realtor.org/home_buyers_and_sellers/2009_first_time_home_buyer_tax_credit?wt.mc_id=rd0039″Question Answer section about the new credit/a/p
pThe Realtors’ spokesman tells me that the new credit will start tomorrow, not today. /p
p”We rechecked the effective date for the repeat buyer,” spokesman Walt Malony said in an e-mail. “The effective date is ‘after the date of enactment.’Today is date of enactment, so the fun begins tomorrow, Nov. 7.”br /
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Judging from all of your questions, tomorrow is going to be a confusing day for buyers, sellers, and the real estate agents, brokers, and attorneys advising them. /strongbr /
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Continue Reading November 6th, 2009
While momentum is building on Capitol Hill to extend the $8,000 first-time homebuyer credit, President Obama’s housing secretary said Tuesday the administration has not decided whether to support its expansion.img src=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rss/money_realestate/~4/IAKBtRsQBhE” height=”1″ width=”1″/ Read more »
Continue Reading November 6th, 2009
pstrongUpdate:/strong emJust spoke with somebody at Sen. Chris Dodd’s office. According to the senator’s banking committee staff, you can qualify for the credit even if you signed a purchase contract before today’s date. The important thing is that you close on the home between today and June 30, 2010 (Your contract must be signed by April 30, 2010). Keep the questions coming, I’ll try to answer as many as I can.br /
/em/p
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Dozens of you have written in with a href=”http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotproperty/archives/2009/11/sorry_readers_h.html#comments”good questions /aabout the tax credit. I’m working on finding answers, especially to one recurring question. To qualify for the $6,500 credit is it necessary to sign the purchase contract after the measure is signed into law today or can a homeowner who closes on a home after today also meet the requirements? I’ve asked the White House to clarify. /p
pIn the meantime, I just received a press release from CMPS Institute, a training, examination, certification and ongoing membership program for financial professionals who provide mortgage and real estate equity advice. /p
pIt clarifies a few things. Read on./p
pMore Homebuyers Qualify for Tax Creditbr /
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Ann Arbor, MI November 6, 2009 – Congress just passed an expanded version of the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit that was set to expire on November 30. “The new version of the tax credit has the potential to stimulate the housing market even more than the old version due to the fact that more people will qualify under the new rules,” said Gibran Nicholas, Chairman of the CMPS Institute, an organization that certifies mortgage bankers and brokers. “Although the tax credit remains at $8,000 for home buyers that have not owned a primary residence in the last three years, it has been expanded to include a $6,500 tax credit for home buyers that have lived in their current primary residence for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight years. Under the old rules, move-up home buyers did not qualify.” Consider these three examples:br /
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Example 1:br /
Jane purchased a home in 2002, lived there for 5 years as her primary home, moved out in 2007, and turned that home into a rental property. If Jane decides to buy a new primary residence today, she would qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that she lived in the same residence as her primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.br /
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Example 2:br /
Harry purchased a home in 2004, and lived there for the past 5 years as his primary home. If Harry decides to buy a new primary residence today, he would qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that he lived in the same residence as his primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.br /
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Example 3:br /
Nicole purchased a home in 2006, and lived there for the past 3 years as her primary home. If Nicole decides to buy a new primary residence today, she would not qualify for the $6,500 tax credit based on the fact that she did not live in the same residence as her primary home for at least five consecutive years out of the past eight.br /
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The tax credit applies to homes purchased for less than $800,000 before May 1, 2010. “If you sign a binding contract to purchase a home before May 1st, you would need to close on the transaction before July 1, 2010,” Nicholas said. “It works kind of like a gift certificate that can be redeemed for cash. You simply file a form with the IRS right after you buy your home, and the IRS will send you a check for the full amount of your credit.” br /
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The income limitation for single tax payers went up from $75,000 under the old rules to $125,000 under the new rules. For married tax payers, the income limitation went up from $150,000 to $225,000. “This means that more people will qualify for the credit – especially in parts of the country with higher costs of living,” Nicholas said. “This should help stimulate parts of the housing market that may not have been impacted by the old version of the credit.”br /
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There are many creative ways of structuring your home purchase transaction in ways that maximize the benefits of the credit. Here are a few examples:br /
· The credit applies to 1-4 unit homes as long as you live in one of the units as your primary residence – you could live in one unit and rent out the othersbr /
· If two unmarried individuals buy a home, and only one of the individuals qualifies for the credit based on their income or past home ownership status, the individual who qualifies for the credit can claim the full credit. (Note: In the case of married couples, both spouses must qualify for the credit.)br /
· The credit applies even if you have co-signers on your mortgage loanbr /
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Continue Reading November 6th, 2009
pMove Inc., parent of Realtor.com, the online listing service for the National Association of Realtors, came out with its third quarter earnings yesterday. Sales were down 11% to $53 million. Although the company has been able to boost its cash flow through cost cutting and more efficient management, it is still a tough environment. Realtor.com depends largely on real estate agents advertising their listings on the site./p
pMove CEO Steven Berkowitz said the company didn’t see the usual spike in listings last Spring. Many homeowners are holding off putting their house on the market in this crummy sales year. As for the agents, Berkowitz said the company had seen a “significant decrease” in their number. Of those that are in still in business, they are spending less on marketing. /p
pWhat gives Berkowitz hope is more potential home buyers coming to the site and staying longer, even its just to window shop./p
blockquote“They are doing more shopping. They are doing more comparison shopping. They are spending more time looking rather than buying. It is no different than a lot of what is happening in retail in a lot of stores where the high end stores people are walking through the store and shopping but they are not buying.”/blockquote
pThe company says it’s updating many of its service offerings, which it needs to. Realtor.com is just about the only real estate search site that doesn’t link to Google’s street views so you can see what the neighborhood looks like without driving out there. Get a move on Move Inc!br /
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