Saint Louis Real Estate-Tax Credit Vote Delayed!

Filed under: Real Estate News

Here we go again! 

After months of speculation, discussion and planning by the legislature and Congress,  the much hoped for vote today on extending the First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit has been delayed by the U.S. Senate.

The U.S. Senate won’t vote until next week at the earliest on proposals to extend the tax credit along with a vote on unemployment benefits for the nations jobless.

The Senate’s vote was delayed by a Republican demand that a vote be allowed on an amendment to to end the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program-TARP-at the end of this year.  You can read more about this action at Bloomberg.com.

For all of you keeping tabs on what’s happening with the Tax Credit, here’s where we are as of today- a brief outline of the major points:

The credit would be extended until April 30th, 2010.  It would include $8000 dollars for first time homebuyers AND $6500 dollars for “move up buyers” (from December 1st, 2009 through April 30, 2010)

Move up buyers would be eligible as long as they have lived in their current home for the last 5 years or more. 

The Tax Credit would expire on April 30th, 2010, BUT…if a buyer had a contract as of April 30th, they would still qualify for the credit as long as they closed the transaction within 60 days following April 30th.

Income limits for both classes of qualifying buyers would be $125,000 for single taxpayers and $225,000 for joint taxpayers. 

Purchases made in 2010 could be claimed on their 2009 income tax returns.

Home buyers would not have to repay the credit, as long as they lived in the new home for at least 36 months after the purchase date.

The amendmemt also includes provisions for a military waiver,  including a provision that the “re-capture” provision would not apply to a member of the Armed Forces, military intellegence or Foreign Service who is on qualified official extended duty. Also, members of the Military who have been deployed overseas for 90 days or more in 2008 or 2009 would have until April 30th, 2011 to claim the home buyer tax credit.

Sounds pretty good to me; now if we can just get everyone “On the Hill” to act on this and get it voted before too long. 

Our suspicion is that the Senate is waiting until as close as possible to November 30th to act on this.  No one wants to see the activity that the tax credit has produced to date falter now or slow down due to an extended deadline.   Whether that would happen or not is a 50-50 debate, but it seems like no one is willing to take that chance.

So for now,  we keep telling all our buyer clients that they still need to close their deals before Thanksgiving to make sure they will qualify for the tax credit. 

We’ll keep you posted on any other developements as they happen in the next several weeks.

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   10.30.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch October 24th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
October 24th, 2009
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario.  Your questions and comments are welcome!

 The St. Louis Real Estate Market this week  heads towards the end of October with activity very stable. Our average pending ratio continues to move in a positive direction, with more homes accepting contracts and getting sold.

Our average listing and selling prices are remaining stable also, with the average list price to sales price percentage still at 96 percent.  Inventory still remains at acceptable levels at an average of 5.8 months. 

In an article published by RISMedia.com, the National Association of Realtors proclaimed that existing home sales bounced back strongly in September. First Time Home Buyers drove much of this activity, which marks five gains in the past six months.  Sales activity is at the highest level we have seen since July 2007, when sales hit 5.73 million, nation-wide. 

According to the article, the Midwest existing home sales jumped 9.6 percent, or 1.25 million.  This is 7.8 percent above one year ago.  The median price of a home in the Midwest today is $147,600 which is 1.0 percent below September 2008.  CLICK HERE  to read the complete article.

 Speaking of First Time Home Buyers; Have you heard about all the fraud plaguing the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit??

How about this:

1.  19,300 people filed claims for homes they HAVEN’T bought yet.

2.  74,000 filers claimed a credit, but have owned a home in the last three years.

3.  580 people that filed for the credit were under 18 years old. One of these  claimants was only 4 years old!! 

4.  3,200 filers used an Individual Taxpayer ID number, not a social security number.  Taxpayer ID’s are usually used by immigrants not allowed to work in the US.  Non-resident aliens are not allowed to claim the tax credit. 

This may make you shake your head, or laugh, or both.  However,  when we are seriously approaching the November 30 expiration date of the tax credit, this may jeopardize it’s hopeful extension into next year.

The General Accouting Office (GAO) reports that over 1.4 million people have filed for the credit in 2008 and 2009, costing the government $10 billion in lost revenue.  The total amount of the program is limited to $13.6 billion. 

I have to ask-Congress is complaining about a measly $10 billion??? 

Looking at the BIG PICTURE,  if this $10-$14 billion helps stabilize the housing market, and helps provide homes for people that would have had to wait another year or so, I say that’s a far cry better than the Government pissing $10-$15 billion away on some other project we would probably never ever hear about.

  WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW that is challenged with their mortgage payments OR needs to sell for less than their home is worth?? WE CAN HELP!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   10.25.2009

St. Louis Real Estate-Market Watch October 19th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
October 19th, 2009
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario.  Your questions and comments are welcome!

 The St. Louis Real Estate Market this week is starting to follow our typical Fall trends with fewer new active listings.  Of the active listings out there, we are still seeing pending ratios (homes accepting contracts) well above the 20 percent mark in the lower price ranges. 

The St. Charles County market is on FIRE in their lower price ranges.  In the $100,000 to $125,000 range, 42 out of 75 active listings have accepted contracts in the last 30 or so days, for a pending ratio of 56 percent-AWESOME! The other two price ranges, $125,000-$150,000 and $150,000 to $175,000 are also showing great activity with pending ratios at 44 and 33 percent, respectively. 

In these lower price ranges in St. Charles County, inventory levels are at 3 months and below.  Our St. Louis County inventory levels in these same price ranges are very low also, at 3.2 to 4.3 months of inventory.

Buyers in these price ranges won’t have the luxury of being too particular, or waiting for a price adjustment before deciding to write a contract.  If they don’t do it now, the home will probably be gone by next week. 

This type of activity is being seen all across the country, as the First Time Home Buyer’s Tax Credit heads toward it’s expiration date of November 30th.  We also see the awesome low interest rates, and the great value for the dollar as contributing greatly to this activity.  

The Mortgage Banker’s Association, National Association of Realtors and National Association of Home Builders got together last week and drafted a letter to Treasury Secretary, Geithner, HUD Secretary Donovan, and National Economic Council Chair Summers,  in support of an extension of the Tax Credit and stating that it has had a major impact on the housing market stabilization and the U.S. economy as well.  

They state, among other items, that new home buyers spent an average of $12300.00 on furnishings, repairs, appliances, etc.. where the current homeowner only spent an average of $8900.00.   This spending, they state, has helped create jobs, and help boost our over-all economic situation.

Read the letter for yourself, and see if you agree with them-we do.             Click Here to read the article, courtesy of RISmedia.com.

 WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW that is challenged with their mortgage payments OR needs to sell for less than their home is worth?? WE CAN HELP!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   10.19.2009

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch October 10th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
October 10th, 2009
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario.  Your questions and comments are welcome!

 The Saint Louis Real Estate Market this week continues with good activity as Fall is upon us.  This is the time of year we start to see activity falling off a bit, but not so this year-so far.

Compared to this same week last year, we are seeing increased numbers of homes accepting contracts (pending) in all price ranges from $100,000 dollars up to $400,000 dollars.  Our pending ratio this week sits at 16.51 percent with 4887 active listings and 807 homes accepting contracts. Last year, this time, we had a pending ratio of 10.85 percent with 5218 active listings and 566 homes accepting contracts. 

 This year we are seeing some higher price ranges with better activity than this same time last year.   Homeowners who have sold to first time home buyers need to buy somewhere else, and a good number of them are buying bigger, higher priced homes.    

The Legislature recently passed a bill allowing the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit to be extended for another year for all Military Service Personal.  The reasoning is that if you have been deployed, or are deployed now, you will still be able to take advantage of the tax credit when you come home.  The Bill still needs approval by Congress and the President.

Extending the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit for the rest of us is still being debated and no definite answers yet.  We’ll keep you up to date as we get dangerously close to November 30th.

 WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW that is challenged with their mortgage payments OR needs to sell for less than their home is worth?? WE CAN HELP!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   10.12.2009

Saint Louis Real Estate-Market Watch October 5th, 2009

Filed under: St. Louis Market Reports

Real Estate-Market Watch  by Art Wagner @ Keller Williams Realty Southwest Saint Louis , Sunset Hills, Mo.
October 5th, 2009
The Anatomy of St. Louis Real Estate

The St. Louis Home for Sale Team provides a weekly St. Louis County and Bi-weekly St. Charles County Market and Jefferson County Market Watch Report to review and plug into your home buying or selling scenario.  Your questions and comments are welcome!

 The Saint Louis Real Estate Market this week  shows a few less active listings and a few less homes accepting contracts, but the number of homes being sold continues to climb.  Our lower price ranges, as usual this year, tend to account for the majority of the activity. 

First Time homebuyers are a large part of this activity, but we also see many active second time home buyers in the marketplace, knowing that there may not be a better time to get awesome value for their dollar.

We still have not heard anything definite about the Government extending the First Time Homebuyer’s Tax Credit, so the expiration date of November 30th looms closer and closer.  Buyer’s still hoping for the $8000.00 tax credit need to have an accepted contract within the next few weeks, or sooner, to assure themselves that they will be able to close the deal by November 30th.   Don’t forget about the four day Thanksgiving holiday at the end of November, make sure it figures into your planning to close your transaaction.

 WHO DO YOU KNOW NOW that is challenged with their mortgage payments OR needs to sell for less than their home is worth?? WE CAN HELP!! 

Posted by Art Wagner   |   Read More   |   Your Comments Are Welcome!   |   10.05.2009