June showed us a good review of the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Hang Over effect.  We had lots of closing which were mostly those closing that were required to get done by June 30th that were put under contract prior to May 1st.  We saw the inventory continue to drop as deals that were pending got closed.  Read the rest of this entry »

Just a quick update on the Home Buyer Tax Credit. On Wednesday night, the senate finally passed the closing deadline extension for the home buyer tax credit. This legislation extends the deadline to close on the property from June 30th until September 30th for eligible buyers who put their home under contract by April 30th of this year. I understand that the gap between Wednesday and whenever the President signs the bill will not effect anyone closing during that time and the new rule will be retroactive for that period. Good news for those buyers who rushed to get their property under contract by end of April but for whatever issue could not close by last Wednesday!

As we have been tracking the progress of the various efforts to extend the closing date deadline on the First Time-Home-Buyer Tax Credit, it appears that Congress is bringing things right down to the last very minute.  Currently, for all qualified Buyers who put a home under contract by April 30, 2010, in order to get up to $8000 of tax credit money from the government, they must have that purchase closed by today.

Efforts have been in the works to extend that date that the homes must be closed until September 30, 2010 due to the backlog of loans that Lenders have had as a result of the surge of home buying that took place in April.  As of right now, the House has passed a bill to extend the tax credit and it is now sitting in the senate.  If the Senate can pass this bill tonight and get the President’s signature on it, there will be a lot of very relieved home buyers out there this evening.  Close to 180,000 home buyers to be more specific.  Here are some interesting numbers from an article put out by the National Association of Realtors yesterday:

Up to 180,000 home buyers will lose their tax credit through no fault of their own if Congress fails to pass an extension to the home buyer tax credit by June 30 when the closing deadline expires. Included in that number are thousands of home buyers in every state of the union, from 390 in Wyoming to 17,700 in California, according to estimates by the National Association of Realtors®.

Specifically in Georgia, it is estimated that 6,270 home buyers will stand to lose their tax credit if the senate does not pass the bill.

Hopefully, for those Buyers that did make things happen by April 30th, the date will be extended.  I’ll update the blog as soon as I hear the final verdict!

It was 5 years ago that the famous Kelo v. City of New London Eminent Domain case was brought before the Supreme Court.  This has been labeled as one of the most “Universally despised Supreme Court Decisions” ever by Scott Bullock.  This is an interesting video on the Good that has come from such a terrible decision.  Have a look

There has been a lot of misinformation about this being past.  Following is an excerpt from realtor.org:

The Senate has adopted Senator Harry Reid’s (D-NV) amendment to the pending jobs and extenders legislation (HR 4213) that would extend the closing date for the homebuyer tax credit from June 30, 2010 to September 30, 2010. The amendment would apply only to purchasers who have satisfied the April 30 binding contract rule for the $8000 and $6500 tax credits. The amendment creates no new eligibility for the credit.

Passage of the amendment (on a vote of 60 – 37) attaches the provision to HR 4213. That legislation is subject to a procedure that will require 60 votes in order to pass. Two efforts to secure the 60 votes have failed. HR 4213 has been withdrawn from consideration for the present. The bill could come to the floor again during the week of June 21, but is not presently on the calendar. If it appears that the bill can secure the necessary 60 votes, it will be considered. Then there will be several more votes required in the Senate. The bill then returns to the House. There is no guarantee that the House will adopt the Senate amendment.

Congress will be in session during the weeks of June 21 and June 28, so votes on the legislation are still possible before the June 30 deadline.

So you can see that this week will tell us a lot.  I think it would be great for those Buyers who did follow the guidelines and spirit of the bill in the first place, and got a home under contract by April 30th, but due to the backlog at the banks, are not going to be able to close by the end of the month.  I’ll stay on top of the issue, and report on what happens when new information is available.

As predicted, we saw a drop in Inventory from April from 13.3 months of inventory to 10.7 months of inventory.  This is a pretty dramatic drop, but it is a reflection of the First Time Home-Buyer tax credit ending at the end of April so we did expect to see this happen.

What does it mean when inventory drops?  Read the rest of this entry »

With the April 30th tax credit deadline expiring for first time home buyers, May 1st brings a new real estate market for us here in Atlanta.  Of course everyone is breaking out their crystal balls to try to figure out what our market will look like without the sense of urgency that buyers have been under to get under contract by the end of April, and the urgency that Sellers have been under to get their homes on the market and sold before the tax credit expires as well. Read the rest of this entry »