Although home buyers need to sign sales contracts by the end of April to qualify for the $8,000 first-time and $6,500 repeat home buyer tax credits, qualified active military servicemen and women have an additional year to take advantage of these incentives.

Under a legislative provision targeting active members of the military, the Foreign Service and the intelligence communities, the tax credit was extended for one year beyond the current deadlines of April 30, 2010 for a binding sales contract and June 30, 2010 for settlement and closing.

The provision only applies to home buyers in the above mentioned groups who have served on official extended duty for 90 days or more outside the U.S. from Jan. 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010.

Also, service members who must sell their home because of official extended duty are excluded from a rule that requires buyers to repay the credit if they move out of their home within three years.

Builders — particularly in cities and towns with a large population of military personnel — should take advantage of the opportunity to market the tax credit extension to qualified military families that are looking to purchase a home.

Resources geared to helping builders spread the word about the benefits of both the tax credit and homeownership are available at www.nahb.org/taxcreditmaterials.

More information on the special provision for military service members can also be found at www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com.

Enjoy this month in real estate brought to you by Brink & Associates with Keller Williams Real Estate

Here is this month in real estate

Victoria Brink

Ron Brink

http://www.AKBRINKTEAM.com

Daily Real Estate News  |  March 15, 2010  |   Share

Is Now a Good Time to Buy?
In many places, real estate is still not a good investment, says Barry Ritholtz, CEO and director of equity research at FusionIQ, which ranks the profitability of investments.

Home prices in the nation’s 20 largest cities need to drop another 15 percent to return to historic norms, he says, or alternatively, prices have to stay flat while gross domestic product and incomes rise. Neither scenario is terribly attractive to investors.

Ritholtz also points out that the Federal Reserve already has said that the cost of borrowing is going to rise. Right now, the cost of borrowing $300,000 at 5 percent is $1,610 a month before taxes and insurance. If rates rise to 6 percent, that’s $188 a month more or $67,680 over 30 years.

Will this increase push down real estate costs still more? Even Ritholtz won’t go there. Instead he advises buyers to consider three factors when making a decision about real estate investment:

• The ratio of median income to median home prices.
• The cost of ownership vs. renting.
• The value of the national housing stock as a percentage of GDP.

Source: The New York Times, Damon Darlin (03/12/2010)

Victoria & Ron Brink with Keller Williams Real Estate Alaska Group

http://www.AKBRINKTEAM.com

Housing Experts Say Real Estate is Recovering
Some of the nation’s top economists believe the housing market has turned and better days are on the way for the housing industry.

Increases in jobs, credit, and affordable homes will overcome impediments such as rising interest rates, and the expiration of the Federal stimulus program to push the housing market toward recovery, says Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist for Barclays Capital.

“I would bet even odds that we’re at a bottom and that we’re going to see improvement in the coming months,” says Karl Case, co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index and a professor of economics at Wellesley College.

“The underlying trend is turning positive,” says Bruce Kasman, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Source: Bloomberg, Kathleen M. Howley and Rich Miller (03/15/2010)

Victoria & Ron Brink with Keller Williams Alaska Group

http://www.akbrinkteam.com

Rate of New Foreclosures Shows Decline
The national foreclosure rate is moderating with the number of foreclosures in February rising 6 percent compared to February 2009, the lowest year-over-year increase in four years.

Foreclosure filings, including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions, were reported on 308,524 U.S. properties during February, a 2 percent decrease compared to January, RealtyTrac also reports.

“The 6 percent year-over-year increase we saw in February was the smallest annual increase we’ve seen since January 2006, when we began calculating year-over-year increases, but it still marked the 50th consecutive month of year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity,” said RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio.

Saccacio said it was too early to call this the beginning of the end of the foreclosure crisis because of the number of homes in limbo due to government programs and other delays.

The 10 states with the higher foreclosure rates are Nevada, Arizona, Florida, California, Michigan, Utah, Idaho, Illinois, Georgia and Maryland.

Six states account for more than 60 percent of the national total: California, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Arizona and Texas.

Source: RealtyTrac (03/11/2010)

HARP Receives a One-Year Extension
The Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), which was supposed to expire June 10, will be extended for another year, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said in a statement.

Since HARP began last April, it has refinanced 190,180 mortgages. It is administered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and aimed at borrowers with little or no equity in their homes.

This program is a sister to Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which was severely criticized by Congress last week for failing to help enough struggling home owners.

Source: Reuters News, Corbett B. Daley (03/01/2010)

Buyers Who Wait May Lose a Lot
Potential home buyers who delay have a lot to lose.

First-time home buyer and move-up tax credits worth $8,000 and $6,500, respectively, expire April 30. Buyers who qualify get a dollar-for-dollar reduction in taxes or a cash payment if they don’t pay enough taxes to cover the credit.

Other factors that should spur buyers:

Low mortgage rates. If the Federal Reserve stops buying mortgage-backed securities at the end of March, 30-year rates will almost certainly rise to more than 6 percent.

Rising prices. About 30 percent of markets are already experiencing price increases. Prices are falling in 12 percent of markets, says Fiserv (but that only helps if you want to live there).

Source: Money Magazine, Beth Braverman (03/02/2010)

I found this article very interesting and hope you do as well! It’s good to know about all the ways buyers and sellers have access to real estate information.

More apps for home shoppers

And save some money on your remodel by doing it virtually first.

Posted by Mai Ling at MSN Real Estate on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:04 PM

The search for a new home just keeps getting easier for people with iPhones, and it sounds like apps for other smart-phone platforms aren't far behind.

Realtor.com, an MSN Real Estate partner, earlier this year released its free iPhone application that helps users find homes for salewhen they're on the go, and also allows them to take photos and notes that they can later view on their home computer.

Social networking is a big part of the app,  which includes contact information for the real-estate agent selling the home, as well as easy access to Facebook and Twitterif you'd like to share what you find with friends and family.

• Whom to follow on Twitter for the best deals

Today, Zillow also announced an update to its free iPhone app, which now allows users to search for homes for rent as well as homes for sale and recently sold homes. Social media platforms are also a big focus, allowing you to share on Facebook and Twitter photos and the estimated values of homes, even ones that aren't for sale.

There also are apps that aim to make your decision easier, which Tracey Taylor writes about in the San Francisco Chronicle's On The Block blog:

Next time you are perusing the photos on a home listing trying to visualize what the rooms would look like with different colors on the walls or furniture that was more to your taste, wonder no more. There's an app for that.

Take a virtual tour of a home via Planomatic's PhotoPlan app, which takes you through the inside and outside of a home that's for sale.

And for all you closet decorators out there, Floor Planner offers you a little piece of virtual heaven with its demo that lets you drag around icons of chairs, patio tables, staircases and more.

• Check out other ideas on the new MSN Real Estate Design Center

But a tool like this isn't only for home seekers who want to see how their home would look with their virtual belongings in it. It also offers a great opportunity to save money on a remodel by helping you figure out what works for your home before it's too late.

Taylor writes that Planomatic is planning to release its app for the BlackBerry and Android soon, and Realtor.com said earlier that it hopes to expand its app to other platforms later this year.

Do you know of any other apps or virtual systems that can aid the hunt for a home or the remodeling process? How have they helped you?

Buffett Predicts Downturn Will End in 2011
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett predicted that the real estate market downturn will end by 2011 as the housing inventory declines.

"Within a year or so, residential housing problems should largely be behind us," Buffett wrote in his annual letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, where he is chairman and CEO. "Prices will remain far below 'bubble' levels, of course, but for every seller or lender hurt by this there will be a buyer who benefits. Indeed, many families that couldn't afford to buy an appropriate home a few years ago now find it well within their means."

He also pinpointed what he sees as the cause of the downturn. "People thought it was good news a few years back when housing starts — the supply side of the picture — were running about 2 million annually," wrote Buffett, "But household formations — the demand side — only amounted to about 1.2 million."

Source: Bloomberg News, Andrew Frye (03/01/2010)