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RISMEDIA, March 5, 2010—The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) wants potential home buyers to be aware that they still have the opportunity to take advantage of the $8,000 first-time home buyer or $6,500 repeat buyer tax credits, as long as they act quickly—the credits expire on April 30, 2010.
“It’s not too late to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Jones, a builder and developer in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “There are plenty of existing homes on the market, and even though the move-in ready newly constructed homes inventory has dwindled, builders may still be able finish a home in time.”
The IRS provides an additional two months beyond the deadline to close the deal. Buyers who sign a sales contract by the April 30 deadline are still eligible if they close the sale of the home by June 30, 2010.
More people than ever before are eligible for a home buyer tax credit, NAHB estimates that close to 70% of all potential buyers should qualify for some form of a credit.
First-time buyers don’t have to be buying their first home ever; they are defined by the IRS as those who have not owned a principal residence in the past three years. Repeat buyers may be eligible for a new $6,500 credit, as long as they have owned and lived in their current home at least five consecutive out of the past eight years.
The current credits also increase the income limits, enabling single taxpayers with incomes up to $125,000 and married couples earning up to $225,000 to potentially qualify for a full credit.
NAHB’s website at www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com, which has received more than 6.5 million visitors since the site launched, provides basic information about the credits, detailed question and answer sections, and links to additional home-buying resources for consumers.
“If you’ve been considering buying a home for any reason, the home buyer tax credit, in addition to historically low interest rates and competitive home prices, make it an ideal time to buy,” said Jones.
For more information, visit www.nahb.org.
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Real estate services company CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. said Thursday that Gil Borok has been promoted to chief financial officer. View full post on Yahoo! News Search Results for real estate
RISMEDIA, March 5, 2010—Americans remain strongly committed to federal support for home buyers, according to a recent survey of U.S. households.
Roughly 68% of those polled said the government should continue to support housing, and 65% believe the government should be doing more to keep families from losing their homes to foreclosure.
The poll included both home owners and renters and was conducted for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) by RT Strategies, a non-partisan public opinion polling firm based in Washington, D.C. RT Strategies interviewed a representative sample of 1,000 adults nationwide by telephone using live interviewers on January 29-31, 2010. The sample included 170 interviews with respondents from cell-phone-only households.
Among those polled, some key groups said the government should continue to play a vital role in maintaining a healthy housing market. For example, 78% of all potential home buyers, including 81% of renters intending to buy a home in the near future, said the government should continue to support housing.
Roughly 65% of home owners said the government also needs to do more to keep families from losing their homes. Support for more foreclosure protection was not confined merely to current home owners. Among renters, 84% said the government needs to do more to helped strapped borrowers. This issue is particularly important to women, with 71% supporting greater foreclosure protection, compared to 58% of men.
Keeping families in their homes is also particularly important to first-time home buyers, as 78% of young adults under age 30 support greater foreclosure protection. And 69% of adults who are 30 to 44, the prime age range for move-up buyers, said they support more foreclosure protection.
Overall, roughly two-in-three respondents said they own their home. Among renters, about two-in-three intend to buy a home in the near future. In addition, 15% of current home owners intend to buy a home in the near future.
The poll asked respondents for their views regarding the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009 that extended a tax credit of up to $8,000 for qualified first-time home buyers purchasing a principal residence. The legislation, which was signed into law by President Obama in November 2009, also authorized a tax credit of up to $6,500 for qualified repeat home buyers. Overall, 8% of those surveyed said they intend to take advantage of this credit, while another 24% who might have been interested in using the tax credit said they cannot afford to purchase a home at this time. Of the 33% of respondents who said they are planning to buy a home (both renters and current home owners), roughly 17% said they intend to use the tax credit.
Financial concerns continue to be the greatest barrier to growth in the housing market. Among renters nationwide who aspire to own their own home, 39% simply don’t have the money to buy a home at this time, and another 20% said the primary obstacle is that they feel they cannot qualify for a loan. Larger economic issues also play a role, as 18% of those surveyed said that job security is the greatest obstacle they face in trying to buy a home.
Weakness in the housing market itself may be blocking some home owners who would like to buy a new home, as 29% of current home owners said their greatest obstacle to purchasing another home is their inability to sell their current home. Beyond that, among current homeowners who aspire to buy a new home, 7% feel trapped by a mortgage that exceeds the value of their current home, 14% fear that the value of a new home might fall after they make the investment, and 13% say home prices are too high to allow them to buy a new home at this time.
Even amid a housing market downturn, 40% of respondents said their home is their most valuable investment, twice the number who cite any other single investment–401k accounts, savings accounts and CDs, stocks and bonds, or mutual funds–as their leading family investment.
For more information, visit www.nahb.org.
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RISMEDIA, March 4, 2010—Existing-home sales fell in January 2010 but are above year-ago levels, according to the National Association of Realtors. Existing-home sales- including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops- dropped 7.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million units in January from a revised 5.44 million in December, but remain 11.5% above the 4.53 million-unit level in January 2009.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said there is still some delay between shopping and closing that affected current sales. “Most of the completed deals in January were based on contracts in November and December. People who got into the market after the home buyer tax credit was extended in November have only recently started to offer contracts, so it will take a couple months to close those sales,” he said. “Still, the latest monthly sales decline is not encouraging, and raises concern about the strength of a recovery.”
Total housing inventory at the end of January fell 0.5% to 3.27 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 7.8-month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 7.2-month supply in December. Raw unsold inventory is 9.6% below a year ago, and is at the lowest level since March 2006.
“Activity should be picking up strongly in late spring as buyers take advantage of the tax credit, which is critical to absorb distressed properties reaching the market and to continually chip away at inventory,” Yun said. “With a downtrend in the number of homes on the market, especially in the lower price ranges, values are beginning to firm but with great variance around the country.”
The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $164,700 in January, unchanged from a year earlier. Distressed homes, which accounted for 38% of sales last month, continue to downwardly distort the median price because they typically are discounted in comparison with traditional homes in the same area.
A parallel NAR practitioner survey shows first-time buyers purchased 40% of homes in January, down from 43% in December. Investors accounted for 17% of transactions in January, up from 15% in December; the remaining sales were to repeat buyers. The survey also shows that buyer traffic increased 9.4% in January.
NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz., said buying a home in the current environment has become more challenging. “First-time buyers and others who need a mortgage are increasingly losing out to all-cash investors for the best bargains in many areas, particularly for foreclosed homes where cash is king,” she said. “Inventory conditions vary by price range, and of course there are major differences depending on location. Realtors are the best buyer resource for strategies on winning bids in increasingly competitive markets,” Golder said. “The bidding for more desirable homes will only accelerate between now and the April 30 contract deadline to qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000.”
According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage edged up to 5.03% in January from 4.93% in December; the rate was 5.05% in January 2009.
Single-family home sales fell 6.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.43 million in January from a level of 4.76 million in December, but are 8.6% above the 4.08 million pace in January 2009. The median existing single-family home price was $163,600 in January, down 0.4% from a year ago.
Existing condominium and co-op sales dropped 8.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 620,000 in January from 675,000 in December, but are 38.1% above the 449,000-unit level a year ago. The median existing condo price was $172,400 in January, which is 1.4 % higher than January 2009.
Northeast
Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast fell 10.9% to an annual pace of 820,000 in January but are 22.4% above a year ago. The median price in the Northeast was $245,300, a gain of 8.8% from January 2009.
Midwest
Existing-home sales in the Midwest declined 6.9% in January to a level of 1.08 million but are 8.0% higher than January 2009. The median price in the Midwest was $130,300, which is 1.0% below a year ago.
South
In the South, existing-home sales dropped 7.4% to an annual pace of 1.87 million in January but are 12.0% above a year ago. The median price in the South was $140,200, down 2.0% from January 2009.
West
Existing-home sales in the West declined 5.2% to an annual rate of 1.28 million in January but are 7.6% higher than January 2009. The median price in the West was $203,400, down 5.8% from a year ago.
For more information, visit www.realtor.org.
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