National Real Estate News

From an article in the Wall Street Journal, the presidential administration laid out their final guidelines for future short sales.

Under the plan, borrowers will receive $1,500 from the government if they sell their homes for less than the amount of the mortgages.  Mortgage-servicing companies will also receive $1,000 for each completed short sale. The program is open to borrowers who may be eligible for the government’s loan-modification program, but don’t end up qualifying, or are delinquent on their modification, or request a short sale or deed-in-lieu transaction.

The short-sale program is the latest addition to the President’s $75 billion foreclosure-prevention plan. Maybe some of these measures will help the people who need the help on their mortgages, along with giving the housing market a shot in the arm.

If you are beginning to look into the short sale process as a seller or buyer, please contact on of our agents for more information.

Congress is considering proposals to greatly expand a soon-to-expire $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers – potentially applying it to all but the wealthiest homebuyers.

• The credit now can be claimed by anyone buying a home who has not owned one for three years and who closes the deal by Nov. 30.
• Beyond extending that deadline, some lawmakers want to make the credit available to all homebuyers who meet income eligibility requirements. And some want to increase the amount of the credit from $8,000 to $15,000.
•  By the end of November, the credit will have been used by 1.8 million homebuyers, at least 355,000 of whom would not have bought a house without the tax break, according to estimates by the National Association of Realtors^®.

 “The most fundamental argument for the credit is that nothing works in the economy if housing is falling – it hurts household wealth and credit becomes tight. [The credit] is a good insurance policy. It’s vital to stem the housing price declines,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of MoodysEconomy.com.

 – “Push on to Expand $8,000 Tax Credit,” by Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com, Oct. 14, 2009.

In Volume 4 of “Looking Forward” Market News from Architectural Digest,  they give us Five Positive Economic Indicators:

• Consumer Confidence is up nearly +7 points
• Contined gains for the economy
• Housing Index up in 18 out of 20 cities
• Builder condidence at record high for the year
• Bounce-back in home improvement

View the article to find out more detail.