Is the Tax Stimulus Working?

People are always asking me: How is the real estate market is? Once they know you are a REALTOR whenever they see you this question comes out. I’m not sure if they are interested in a detailed answer or a five second answer or if they are interested because they own property or a home.

Either way, I usually make it short and in most cases, put a positive spin on it because that’s just the way I am. If you know me, you know I’m a very positive upbeat person that looks on the bright side of things. I’ve always been this way!

Now, let’s get back to “How is the real estate market?” It would be good to hear from you how the tax stimulus is working in your part of the country. For Rochester, New York, it is working very well. The homes that are in the lower price range are flying off the market, getting multiple offers! It is really crazy!

From here it looks like the $8,000 tax credit is doing the trick for getting the homebuyers off the fence and into the market as first-time homebuyers. But…..we need a tax credit for the other homebuyers who are not first-time homebuyers to get the rest of the real estate market going. I believe this is what is needed to get the whole economy going with all the services that drive off the real estate industry.

So then, “How is the real estate market?” not bad, but it could be a whole lot better! Tell me how your real estate market is doing.

You may have read my earlier blog about going to Conventions and that I was heading off to Washington, DC for the annual National Association of Realtors Midyear meetings. One of the events scheduled for us was to visit Capitol Hill and meet with our Senators and House representatives and share with them our views on upcoming legislation and what they could do to help our industry.

We also had the Secretary of HUD, Shaun Donovan, speak to our Realtor delegation and the outcome was a modification that is going to be a tremendous benefit to the first-time home buyers. It is this: HUD has approved the amount of the Tax Credit to be able to be used for the downpayment, through a bridge loan by the bank offering the loan to the home buyer.

This means the home buyers only need good credit and employment and very little money to buy though the FHA mortgage program. This should definitely bring some extra home buyers into the picture who earlier were short on the downpayment.

We all have heard of the $8,000 Tax Credit that the Administration signed to law to help stimulate the real estate industry in an effort to get the economy going. Over the past month, it has definitely helped to get many first-time home buyers off the fence and out buying houses, but it could be better.

Just received word that the new change is temporarily on hold until some details with the advance for the downpayment are figured out. Click here to go to the Mortgagee letters.