6 Key Facts About the First-Time Buyer Tax Credit

I’ve made my perspective very clear on a previous post about this “tax-credit”, but if you’re up to taking advantage of it, it’s all yours. Here’s a great article I came across thanks to Kimberly D. Mackey, MCSP, CMP, Realtor®.

The $7,500 home ownership tax credit that the federal government created earlier this year as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (H.R. 3221) is another tool at your disposal to encourage potential buyers to jump off the fence and get into the real estate market.

When you combine the tax credit with today’s low interest rates, wide selection of for-sale inventory, and affordable home prices, many of the pieces are in place for your customers to buy now. But tax credits can be confusing. To help your clients understand how the credit works and why it would help them, you must learn the details.

Here are 6 things you should be able to explain to prospects and clients:

via First-time Buyer Tax Credit: REALTOR® Magazine

TBO: GTAR – Hillsborough Home Sales Up Slightly In September

There were 1,345 sales, up from 1,327 sales in August, according to the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors. The inventory of unsold homes slowly is dwindling, the association said. It would take 14.21 months to sell all the homes on the market, at the current selling pace.

via Hillsborough Home Sales Up Slightly In September

Engel & Voelkers grows despite sour residential market – Tampa Bay Business Journal:

A niche company such as Engel & Voelkers that specializes in luxury properties may just have an entrée. Winiarek foresees 200 franchises in Florida within 10 years.

“There is a lot of entrepreneurial spirit in every office driving it to succeed,” said Winiarek. “We have capitalized ourselves, and we’re ready for what’s happening in the market right now.”

This is what I like to hear! Some friendly competition and a positive out look for Florida, and specifically, the Tampa Bay Market. The more bodies out there moving these properties, the quicker we can get out of this rut. It’s my belief that companies that can grow during tough times can only expect to see exponential growth once things are back to normal. Good luck to E & V, and may the growth be with you!

Engel & Voelkers grows despite sour residential market – Tampa Bay Business Journal:.

In Rescue to Stabilize Lending, U.S. Takes Over Mortgage Finance Titans – NYTimes.com

In Rescue to Stabilize Lending, U.S. Takes Over Mortgage Finance Titans – NYTimes.com.

Good News, Bad News

Oh, if it were only a figment of our imagination...

 This will more than likely be a topic I’ll be doing pretty frequently. Here are two articles from the same publication (St. Pete Times) that contradict each other.

First, let’s rip the band-aid. The bad news focuses on the builders, building starts and permits (nationally). Yes, they’ve slowed down, but we’re still building right? There’s quite a bit of comparisons to the 80’s and 90’s for such a short article, but then again isn’t that when things were “normal”? Robert Toll (Toll Brothers) makes a cameo in the article saying things are “dismal” and then using some odd metaphor. It’s no secret the luxury home builders are feeling the crunch more-so than most.

Happy Time! GTAR does a good job here of leaking every bit of positivity they can proclaiming a higher number (5% increase) of sales in Tampa Bay than the previous month. There’s no breakdown of exactly what types of homes are selling (short sales?) and just when we’re ready to jump on the “love train” the article manages to commit a major party foul by reminding us that “The top July for sales was 2,932 homes in 2005. This year’s showing is 54 percent below that peak.”

Yeah, we know. We were there. Thanks.

St. Pete Times: Home building activity, confidence drop in unison; Tampa area home sales post July rebound